“He’s bluffing. Both of your names are all over the newsfeeds. Now go check on her,” he urged. He needed to get her out of Gunner’s sight, needed to know she was safe in the depths of his ship, keeping Lily safe for him. It was his fault they were here.
She nodded once, swallowing and shaking, and he released her. She took two steps back before darting her gaze back to the screen then back to him, her whole body shivering. “Don’t let him take her,” she whispered. “Not him.” Janet backed out of the room.
“Hey, again, I’m only trying to help,” Gunner called out as Zeph watched Janet rush down the passageway and away from him. “I’m not that bad! Ely would love the company.”
Zeph turned back to the jackal, the tiny amount of calm he’d mustered for Janet’s sake disintegrating. Moving to the console, he seeded into it and set new coordinates. “If you’re here to bring me in, you better do it now.” The warp speed sequence commenced, somewhere far off, he felt theOppression’snuclear reactor strain with power.
Gunner cackled. “You have me all wrong, Croc.”
“Destroying one EPED ship in an effort to talk to me further doesn’t get you that much, fucker. You know they will assume I did it anyways.” Zeph’s eyes shot to Gunner. “We’re either taking this to the death or not.”
The jackal’s face went serious. “There’s a tracker on your ship—on every Cyborg ship in the EPED. They know where you are, even if you’re offline. Everything is being fed, constantly and in real-time, to their servers.”
Zeph’s hands stilled on his console, the electricity crackling under his fingers. “That’s impossible.” But he was already seeding into his ship to look. “What reason would you have to tell me this?” He shot out signals from his body to source any technology that didn’t belong. Each pulse came back with nothing. “There’s nothing unusual in my domain.”
“Besides the two abducted females?” Gunner snorted. “I digress. I didn’t believe it either until Cypher found this on my ship.” Gunner held up a tiny little metal bug, with wings and all. It looked like a beetle…or a wasp. Zeph recognized the piece and his mouth split open as his croc teeth reappeared. “You know what this is. Not many would.” Gunner eyed him suspiciously. “Curious, isn’t it? Mine was hidden behind a maintenance panel in my specimen holding room, where the scent of the sterilizing equipment would mask it from me. Fuckers run when you find them, too.”
The warp countdown initiated in his head, triggering a jump to a galaxy near Elyria, the darkest, most hedonistic and glitzy place in the universe. A world inhabited by the wealthy and run by its underworld. A place where someone with enough resources could fall off the grid entirely.
Five.Zeph’s nostrils flared as he stared at the tracker.
“I’ll accept your truth,” he said under his breath, knowing that doing so meant he now owed the jackal a favor. “But I won’t let you take them from me.”
Four.
Gunner smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t kill kids, especially not ones with marksman aspirations. Consider this a free pass, Croc. If I catch you again, only three of us will be walking away alive, because the bounty on the girls can only be collected if they come back alive.” He flicked his fingers and the bug vanished.
Three.
Zeph nodded, accepting Gunner’s terms.
Two.
“Until next time.”
One.
When the channel broke and the ship went into warp, Zeph rushed out of the bridge to seek Janet. He stopped midway. He twitched, his muscles straining, his feet poised and ready to chase her down. But he couldn’t. If Gunner had caught him so quickly, and so unaware, then they were in far greater danger than he’d originally thought.
The universe was a big fucking place until it wasn’t. Cyborgs were honorable until they weren’t. He slapped his hand against the wall and growled. The delicious scent of Janet’s flight filled him and his instincts demanded he hunt her down and subdue her all over again.
She’s my goddamned trophy. My hard-earned prize.Zeph wouldn’t let Gunner ruin that. He seeded into Bin-one and to make sure she and Lily were safe.
He couldn’t wait to be inside her again. Once with her wasn’t enough. And to be inside her with the smell of submission and desperation on her skin? Even a space battle with Gunner couldn’t dilute the erotic power of that. Not even the possibility of a tracker that would lead more hounds to his whereabouts.
Zeph closed his hand and pulled it away from the wall, leaving a small dent behind. Far off, he heard Janet’s voice and Lily’s response. There was no way he was going to interrupt them after what had just happened, and not while his control was still in question.
I have to find the fucking tracker.
He recognized the bug Gunner had shown him. A piece of the swarm itself. The single most deadly enemy he’d ever gone up against. Not many had the pleasure of seeing Nightheart shift, nor the technology the Cyborg had stored in hispyrizianmetal frame. It was monstrous, and difficult to predict.
He wants me dead.
Nightheart fought his battles unlike any other Cyborg in existence. Nightheart didn’t just kill, Nightheartconsumed.
‘He’ll kill you.’
Zeph wiped a palm heavily across his face, and down to his swollen erection. He needed to have a clear mind and steady resolve when he dealt with Janet. He thrust forcefully into his hand until he came.I deserve to die.
