“A female of your stature will never be fine,” he snapped.
Now her nostrils flared. Vee rounded on him. “I don’t know who you think you are—”
“A Cyborg.”
“I know that! You’ve only mentioned it several times in the last two hours. You have no right to try and dictate my life, even if it’s only for a short time. I said I would answer your questions, not give myself over to you. I can take care of myself. Always have, always will.” How had this male ever made her nervous? Godly or not, he was exasperating.
“You’re the one who was calling me sir not long ago, little girl.”
“Because in the few freaking minutes you’ve been in my life, all you’ve been is grumpy! You’re an easy target!”
“An easy target?”
“To tease.” The elevator shot open, and Vee stepped out. “Have you ever talked to another human before? Dealt with a human? You don’t know me. I’m resilient.”
Cypher narrowed his eyes on her.
Bees greeted them, rubbing against her leg. Brows furrowing, she reached down to scratch behind his ears when her hand stopped. “Bees?” He meowed, and she picked him up, holding him to her chest, turning to look down the hallway toward her apartment. “Why are you in the hallway…”
Cypher stormed past her and pulled the gun out from his belt. The click of the safety turning off had her springing forward to follow him. Her door was ajar up ahead. Cypher pushed her door the rest of the way open. She stopped at the threshold behind him as he entered, her heart dropping into her stomach.
Her apartment was trashed. Clothes had been torn from the closet, the walls were spray painted with words calling her everything from a bitch to a metal dick eater to a betrayer of mankind. All her food was spilled out across the floor.
Bees jumped out of her arms as Cypher walked the small space twice over.
A cry tore from her throat as she took a step towards her Terraform Zero machine. It’d been destroyed. Vee clutched the pole.
Everything…
The seat had been shredded, the straps sliced apart. Her screens had been shattered, and her suit… her suit lay wet and in tatters at her feet. The reek of urine filled her nose. Not even her goggles had made it—the ones she’d had since she was thirteen, given to her by her parents. She reached down to pick them up.
A hand clamped down on her shoulder.
“Don’t,” she whispered, blinking back tears.
His grip on her shoulder tightened. From the corner of her eye, she saw that he still held his gun in his other hand.
Bees meowed up at her. Vee wiped her eyes, dropped the goggles, and picked her cat back up. She pressed her face into his fur and wrenched her eyes shut.
Cypher’s hand dropped from her shoulder. “Gather anything you want to keep. We’re not staying here tonight.”
She nodded into Bees’s fur and inhaled shakily. It was too hard to speak, to say anything.
Suddenly, she was happy Cypher was here with her after all.
Everything was gone.
10
Vee slowly packed a duffle bag with the few clothes and toiletries that survived. Cypher watched as he waited by the door, standing guard. All the fire in her had burned out, and had transferred to him instead. But seeing her spark diminished also sat ill with him. He couldn’t help but blame himself. It was a Cyborg’s job to protect humans—even if they sucked. Vee was a bystander to Nightheart’s game, and Cypher thought he should be between them to keep her safe. She was innocent.
He’d never seen such a downward shift in a person so suddenly. It made him feel helpless to respond. Even more so since it was obvious Vee was trying hard to hold it in.
His concern for her safety had been justified.Fucking hellfire.His hands clenched.
Each item she lifted from the floor to check over, only for it to be dropped with a whimper soon after, infuriated him further. Was there anything in her home that the criminals hadn’t wrecked?
If he’d arrived here sooner, perhaps he could’ve stopped the destruction. He couldn’t help but wonder if his attack on the men outside earlier had anything to do with this. But simply sniffing the air, it was obvious the scents within Vee’s apartment were different than those of the miscreants. Whoever did this wasn’t them.
