I spoke to the whole team. The Atlans were still fighting above our heads. Add these two to the mix and those boys were in serious trouble. “We’ll lead them away. Draw them into the corridor. Krag, you guys know where we’re headed?”
“We’re almost there.”
Good. He heard me. We’d all memorized the layout of the building. If Jenkins and I couldn’t kill this motherfuckerourselves, at least we could lead him to his death. Assuming we survived long enough to meet up with the Prillon team.
I had a feeling this was not going to end well. “Lyra—I’m sorry.” I hoped she could hear me, hear in my voice what I’d never had the balls to say to her. That I was in love with her. That she made everything in my life better. That she was everything I’d ever wanted, and I wished we had more time.
A weighted silence settled over comms as I dragged Jenkins toward that fucking door. The two cyborgs seemed bored. Emotionless. More machine than man. No urgency in their movement or actions as if they already considered us to be dead. No threat. Irrelevant.
“Fuck you.” I fired the blaster at the giant on the right while Jenkins attacked the one on the left. We didn’t stop shooting, the impacts seemed to be holding them to a consistent distance. Maybe our weapons would do more damage up close and personal. A theory I didn’t want to test.
I’d never really hated the fact that I was human. I was taller than average. Fast. Strong. Average looks. More intelligent than most. I’d been walking around taking everything for granted. I’d never wanted to be someone else.
In that moment, I wished I was one of them. An Atlan Warlord. I would have put my mating cuffs on Lyra’s wrists and claimed her like they did. There would have been no need for her to hide herself from me. Lie. Compromise her needs, settle for handcuffs when she craved heavy metal cuffs.
I’d satisfied her in every other way. Made her come with my dick buried deep. Heard her beg for more. Held her as she slept. Taken care of her. I might be human, but she was mine. The truth settled in my bones.
Her voice, calm and lethal, slid through my comms like silk wrapped around steel. “Don’t move.”
I froze in place. A heartbeat later, something whizzed over my shoulder to hit the cyborg closest to our position, the one in front of Jenkins. The smaller of the two.
A hole exploded in his chest, where I imagined his heart used to be. The edges of the wound sizzled and spread, made him look like the business end of a lit cigarette. When the wound had expanded to the size of a basketball hoop, he finally fell to the ground and didn’t get back up.
I expected the second cyborg to charge, finish us off.
Instead, he tilted his head and lookedthroughme. Past our position.
If the Coalition helmets could see through walls, this monster probably could, too. I knew exactly what—or rather who—he was looking for. Lyra.
As if on cue, the cyborg turned from us like we didn’t exist and ran toward the front entrance we’d breeched minutes ago.
“Lyra, get out of there. He’s coming for you.” I dragged Jenkins three steps over and leaned his back against the wall. Checked his leg. The adaptive armor had sealed around the wound, would at least keep him from bleeding out.
“Lyra?”
“I see him.” Her calm, calculating tone made my blood run cold.
“Get out of there!”
No response.Fuck.
“Go.” Jenkins leaned back and closed his eyes. “Go. Kill that fucker.”
I walked over to the dead cyborg and ripped the blue lightning shooter from the still warm forearm—grunted with satisfaction when I felt, and heard, bone break.Gore clung to the device. I ignored it. Fired a couple test shots as I ran. Blasted a hole in the far wall.
Fuck, yeah. Now we were in business.
Hang on, Lyra. I’m coming.
16
Lyra
That monster was comingfor me.
I’d seen him before. The I.C. had been hunting him for years. I’d watched him on vid after vid moving with controlled precision. No emotion. Nothing left of the Atlan Warlord he’d once been. His fate was the heartbreak and horror every Atlan Warlord faced. Their beasts were powerful, fearsome creatures. When caught and turned against their own people, they became the thing of nightmares.
Something shifted in the air as the cyborg came outside. My beast took a deep breath, analyzed the air with a sensitivity and precision I’d never had before. I could smell him coming, a mix of Atlan and machine. His bloodstream laced with chemicals. Poison. Things to cloud his mind and control his system.
