She needs to know.He felt Janet watching him as his ship flew away from the moon.I’ve already messed up enough.He planned on taking her from everything she knew, from her family, which he was beginning to understand meant everything to her. He couldn’t lose the meager amount of trust he’d earned thus far, not after losing it so completely nights ago. She needed to know.
Even if it meant that yet another being in the universe held something against him.
Her trust and happiness helped him. Lily’s happiness helped him. He was finally beginning to understand and categorize, analyze, and cure his sickness.
He threw Lily into the air and caught her up against him when she came down. Maybe he could keep them both. A daughter would be fun.
Zeph hugged Lily once before releasing the little tornado back to the innocent floors of theOppression.There was something so sweet about finding sweaty little handprints all over his ship. Lily’s bare feet thumped hurriedly back to the window and the quickly approaching planet beyond.
Janet continued to watch him silently from across the room.
He met her eyes but couldn’t read her expression. His cock hardened anyway.
‘Come to me.’The thing inside desperately willed her.
She turned away and went back to her sister.
14
Zeph stepped into his armory and swiped his finger across the lockbox on the far wall. He pulled out a couple of bio-projectors and placed them in the hair above his ears. When he turned them on, his face and features changed to resemble an ordinary man. The illusion tech wasn’t great, but it helped. It would prevent bystanders from recognizing him from the media.
When he was done, he moved back to the bridge and requested landing clearance to Oasis City, one of Elyria’s biggest tourist hubs. His ship was registered and placed into the Elyrian landing queue system, which he promptly altered. As far as the Elyrian transit control agency was concerned, Zeph was a simple courier delivering documents within the system. He seeded a dozen historical transactions showing on-time arrivals and departures over the last several months across the planet.
Any human security specialist would probably think it was a work of genius; any Cyborg would find it a disgustingly inelegant hack-job, and all he was doing was leaving a big trail behind him. But his ship still possibly had a tracker hidden on it so speed triumphed over elegance. The EPED hadn’t had dealings with the Elyrian local government since immediately after the war, right before Nightheart took the reigns and privatized the division.
That was years before he and Hector joined the monster hunting ranks. If there were any EPED officials on Elyria, he’d take care of them, but if Gunner was helping him out, Zeph figured as long as he kept moving, there was still time.
He found an empty landing strip well outside the city limits, between a bunch of dilapidated ship factories back from the war. After twenty minutes had passed and no one had approached on his radar, he idled the reactor and watched as the dust outside settled. While he waited, he checked his numerous communications.
Nightheart. Mia. John. Stryker. Dozens of messages from other Cyborgs and business connections throughout the universe awaited unread. Major news sources had found his ship’s personal communications as well, and his coms were littered with inquiries. Zeph ignored them all until he reached the messages sent from Netto and the Montihans.
“Mistress Lily,” Mr. Heartface’s mechanical voice filled his ears, several seconds after Lily’s signature excitement invaded the helm, “the bridge is a restricted area!”
“It’s okay,” he said as Lily stopped in front of him, mouth agape.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Zeph canted his head and flicked the illusion tech off. “Just me.”
Her eyes widened as she studied him. “Do it again.”
He changed his face again, and a smile appeared. He made a goofy expression that transferred between illusions as she giggled. “Never seen real toys have you, Lily?”
“Can I try?”
“Sure.” He took off one of the pieces and clipped it to her hair. “Just press the button. There’s several premade looks already coded in.” Zeph led her to a nearby mirror and showed her. Lily’s baby features morphed into a young man’s.
“I’m Steven!” she squealed.
He placed his fists on his hips and scowled. “No, you’re not.”
“Idolook like him!”
She didn’t. “No, you don’t. We don’t like Steven on this ship,” he warned.
“I’m Steven, I’m Steven!” Lily jumped up and down, exasperating him.
I’m going to kill that piece of shit hick.
