Breathing her in, his madness only grew.
She loves me.
Savagery returned.
He rose from the bed when she was sleeping soundly and tucked within the covers.
Cypher walked out of the room, to his arsenal, and dressed. Strapping weapons to his vest, he readied to find his bliss once more tonight.
And with his jaw half-shifted, his teeth pointed to fangs, he walked into the night, eyes aglow with rage.
25
Cypher left the spaceport behind, taking his hovercraft to a high-rise on the other side of the New America metropolis.
It wasn’t NeoElite he was after, but those who tried to take Vee from him weeks prior. Though time had passed, it was still fresh in his mind. That was one of the bittersweet perks of being a mechanical creature—memories never truly faded.
He parked his vehicle several blocks away from the high-rise. Once he’d checked his weapons, he left the hovercraft behind, sticking to the midnight shadows. Smog flooded his nose, and with it, disgust. During his short time on Earth, he hadn’t found much he enjoyed about it. He didn’t understand why his brethren, like Nightheart and Stryker, wanted to stick close by the human hub.
My ancestors, the bears that made up my unusual DNA, roamed these lands once.He couldn’t imagine that this city may have once been the home of a lush wilderness filled to the brink with animal predators. Thousands of years had passed since then.
He was the predator now. The last remnant of his ancient ursine kin, the great bears of Earth. Did he deserve to be the last one?
When he reached the high-rise, he seeded into the IP he traced—Diatrix’s. It wasn’t hard. Even if it was, it was common knowledge on the network where Deadly Dearest trained.
Moving toward the door, he disrupted their security system and let himself inside. Unlike Vee’s dismal building, this place was clean and maintained—near glitzy with moderate wealth. The smog of the city didn’t penetrate its walls, and what he saw were clean floors, freshly painted walls, and artwork on the walls of the entryway.
The office was closed. He blanked out the security cameras as he headed for the elevator.
Minutes later, he stood before a door with a sign on the front. Deadly Dearest’s brand. Bright pink, bright yellow, gray and black.
Vee’s was simpler, better.
It brought to mind the virtual bunnies that infiltrated his room on Ghost City. His lips tugged into a slight smile. In the time he’d spent with Vee, he only saw her playful, quirky side on a few occasions. He was determined to see it more.
If I can convince her…
Cypher stamped the thought from his mind and punched through the door. It flew into the back wall with a crash, breaking furniture in its path.
Noises of people waking filled his ears. He stepped into the large partial studio apartment as several women fled from side rooms to investigate the noise.
He smelled Diatrix before he saw her.
A yell sounded, but it didn’t faze him. He made his way to Diatrix right as she appeared from behind a curtain.
Her eyes went wide with fear as he pulled out his gun. One of her team members screamed.
“C-Cypher,” Diatrix gasped, stumbling backward.
“You hired men to kidnap Vee.”
“I didn’t!”
“There’s no sense in lying. I found the correspondence between you two weeks ago.”
She shook her head.
“Why?” he demanded.
