He didn’t look at her.
“Why are you blue?” she asked. She had never been good with people, so why start now?
The Cyborg shrugged. His muscles bunched as the movement tightened his blazer across the entire upper-half of his body. Her eyes landed on the EPED tag and it brought her back to reality.
“Why are you here?”
“Rylie!” Ma scolded her from across the room. Rylie flushed with embarrassment.
He continued to sharpen the knife in easy, fluid movements, the wisp of the metal against the stone her only answer for the next minute. When he let go of the knife to move onto the next one, she picked up the finished one and pressed the side of it against her thumb, judging his work.Perfect.It was perfect.
When she looked back up, the Cyborg was watching her. Grey eyes pinned her to the spot.
A shiver went through her as her neck strained under his intimidating gaze. Even the sounds of her family, the distant conversations throughout the nearby rooms, and the clicks of items being moved couldn’t unpin her. Rylie wanted to look away but he held her, unmoving. She wanted to leave.
His jaw ticked as if he was about to say something and it was enough to break the spell of his eyes. She dropped her gaze and reached for a modicum of control. She set down the knife and turned right into another man.
Oh no. A hand settled on her shoulder to balance her. She peeled herself from under it in a matter of seconds but backed right into a hard wall.Oh god.
Not a wall, she realized, but the blue Cyborg.
“Woah, calm down. You okay? Your heart is beating way too fast,” the new man muttered. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
She was on the other side of the room the next instant, her heart pounding and her brow slick with sweat. Rylie ducked into the nearest bathroom and splashed her face until the red blush she sported cooled.
Fleeing had never seemed more attractive. She would take a dozen dates set-up by her parents over her current, rapidly growing embarrassment.
The Cyborgs were not what she expected. They were so much worse, and she found herself letting out a breathy laugh as she wished she was dealing with an entire crew of officials instead: stodgy, judgemental officials.
The blue one was unnerving and unusual. He was hard for her to grasp. She hadn’t wasted any time looking at the other one.
When she entered the dining room, Da was already sitting at the head of the table conversing with the other Borg whose name she didn’t know. He looked up at her and smiled, revealing eyes that were almost too bright to meet. They glowed, a piercing radioactive green. Rylie turned away and sat next to her youngest sister on the other side of the table.
“That’s my daughter, Rylie.”
“We met in the kitchen,” the other man said. “My name’s Zeph. Sorry if I startled you earlier.”
“You didn’t,” she lied and turned toward her baby sister, ending the conversation before it started. “What’s that on your screen?” she asked Lily.
Lily shook the device. “Space pirates,” her face lit up with neon color as an animated rainbow nebula appeared on the screen.
“Is it fun?”
“Fun.”
Lily wasn’t going to save her. Already, Rylie noticed movement at the periphery of her vision as the rest of her family entered and sat at the table. She didn’t want to look up from Lily’s screen to save her life, but the sound of the chair on the other side of her forced her attention away.
She expected to see Janet but instead, an arm filled her personal bubble because it was too large for its own. It was the blue Cyborg and he took up all her space.
Janet had taken the seat next to Zeph, putting her in-between both Cyborgs. Ma came in and sat down on the other side of her da, leaving the next two seats between her and Lily open.
She wondered who the other seats were for as Steven entered. He wasn’t family but was close. His da was like an uncle to her.
“Sorry, got tied up at the facility,” Rylie watched him enter and sit down. “My dad won’t be able to make it.”
“Why? Did something happen?” Da asked.
“He’s got a cough, not feeling well enough to venture out tonight.” Steven’s eyes landed on Janet, absorbing the sight of her sister between two frightening Borgs.
