“No.”
“Did you realize bringing an innocent into your schemes would cost them, or was your selfishness enough for you to not care?”
“Zeph fucked us over. I’ll send a team out tonight to follow Ms. Miles and ensure her safety.”
“Zeph fuckedyouover. And don’t bother, she’s with me.”
“If you can’t think of Cyborgs as a collective, where one action by an individual affects us all, you don’t deserve to call yourself one.” Nightheart’s voice chilled over the line.
Cypher’s muscles contracted, the tendons in his body strained. “And what does that make you, you piece of shit? When you’re willing to betray one of us to serve your own whims? I won’t work for you. If you leave Vee alone and fix this problem you caused, I won’t come after you—”
“You know I won’t do that. I like you too much.”
“Why?” he roared, his bear claws shooting out from his fingers.
“Because a deal is a deal, Cypher, and Ms. Miles signed a binding contract. The whole universe knows now.”
“She’s innocent!”
“Andyouthreatened her for over a week.”
“I won’t rest until this is over! I can make your problems so much worse that Zeph’s indiscretion will look like child’s play. I will ruin everything you’re striving to build and burn it to the ground. And I will laugh the entire time.”
Nightheart went quiet.
“You know I can destroy you,” Cypher continued.
Something rubbed against his leg, and his eyes dropped to find Vee’s cat nuzzling against his shin. He frowned at the small creature and some of his fury dissipated.
“Come to my office tomorrow,” Nightheart muttered. “We’ll talk on the subject further.”
“Already fucking planning on it.” Cypher ended the comm call in his head, breaking the connection with Nightheart’s IP. He reached down with one hand and scooped Bees into his lap. The cat arched its back as Cypher petted it.
Vee’s scent tickled his nose, sweet and strange. He calmed further as Bees settled. Cats loved his kind, and he likened it to the warmth his interior parts generated. Despite all the tech in the universe at their reach, Cyborgs ran hot.
“Why aren’t you with your mom?” Cypher mumbled. Bees answered with a purr.
Cypher leaned back wearily in his chair and kicked his legs up on the console. He toyed with turning on his security system and checking on Vee, and after warring with himself for a minute, he decided checking wouldn’t do any harm.
He was an advocate for privacy, but Vee wasn’t well.
A screen popped up, illuminating the bridge, showing him the entirety of his room. He found her lying with her back to the wall on his bed. His heart thrummed. Tucked under the old threadbare covers, her hands were cupped in front of her mouth, and her legs curled up into a fetal position. The fire of her hair streaked across his pillow.
Her eyes were shut tight, and her brow was creased.
Cypher’s throat tightened. He hadn’t lain in that bed in years—not even once during this past week he’d traveled from Ghost—but he sorely wanted to now. The bed had been made for his size, and Vee was tiny within it.
I’d fit.
She’s perfect. We’d fit together. There’s enough room for both of us.
Not once had he ever thought about having a woman of his own. When he encountered women in the past, they were colleagues and professionals, those he worked with during the war. Back then, there were stringent rules about fraternization, even more so with Cyborgs and humans because the effects of such unions had unknown variables. Some Cyborgs ignored the rules, but he always followed them.
It wasn’t only that there were rules, he and his brethren were ‘young’ during the war, and they’d been created for a specified purpose: to win. To destroy the Trentian empire at all costs, and with as few loss of human lives as possible.
Even if travesty was left in their wake.
Women didn’t factor in when it came to winning. Bed sport wasn’t going to lead anyone to victory. With the kinds of dominant kill-commands running through a Cyborg’s head, basic needs like sex took a backseat. And with shifters like Cypher, grappling with being part animal, it made everything that much more difficult, codes or not.
