CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Danya was fully recovered by the next day with two barely visible marks on her skin where the bullet entered and exited. Vyken had several similar marks on his skin that would all fade in time, but he still felt the trauma of seeing Danya shot down in front of him. That would take a lot longer to fade, meanwhile he hardly left her side the next few days.
Unfortunately, three people had witnessed Jacob Black’s grizzly death at Vyken’s hands and were traumatized by it. The Enclave Council, while they agreed he it was justifiable, requested that Vyken not show himself in the residential areas of the Enclave for the time being. He had no regrets. It was just one more killing in a long line of kills throughout his career as a warrior. He would kill anyone who tried to hurt his female and not think twice about it.
“You really don’t remember?” Vyken asked Danya while they ate their morning meal.
“I remember Jacob calling my name. I turned around, then lights out. Then I woke up in sickbay, and you were holding my hand,” she said with a shrug.
“It’s just as well,” Vyken told her, taking a sip of his water. “We should have put Black in the brig on the ship. He couldn’t get out of there.”
“You killed him, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Vyken told her. “He thought his little projectile gun could stop me.”
“Are you in trouble for that?” she wondered.
“No, he tried to kill you and then me, but I don’t kill so easily. There were witnesses, and I’m sorry they had to see that.” He paused meeting her solemn gaze. “I’m glad you didn’t see me do that. I am a killer. We were all bred to be killers. I didn’t have to kill him. I wanted to. When I saw what he did to you, I went berserk.”
“There have been people I’ve wanted to kill,” Danya admitted. “But I’m wasn’t strong enough or skilled enough to do it, and the only weapons we had were knives.”
“Well, I will teach you, and you have your sidearm,” he said. He took the last bite of his protein bar and finished his water. “Are you finished?”
She nodded.
“Good, I want to show you something,” he said. “We can take one of the little hover trams. It’s not that far, and it’s a clear day.”
The hover tram was an open utility vehicle with a seat for two people that hovered a couple feet off the ground. Behind the seat was a small box for hauling tools and supplies around a large property. Vyken helped her into it even though she really didn’t need help and climbed in beside her. He had set the coordinates when he called it. They rode it across the open countryside for about fifteen minutes to a small hill overgrown with grass and weeds with a big bushy maple tree off to the side.
“What do you think of this place for a home?” Vyken asked when they came to a stop.
“I thought you wanted to go to Phantom,” Danya said a little surprised.
“A lot of it has to do with you, I think. Since I have been back here, I’ve started to think of this place as home. This is where I was spawned, right in the Enclave facility. I did some research, and most of the land out here has been abandoned. So, we can just build a house and live here if we want to. We’re outside the boundaries of the Enclave.”
“Sure, if that’s what you want. I’ve never been in space, but I have no great desire to go off-world. But, I would have if you wanted to go there,” Danya said with an affectionate smile.
“I didn’t want to take the assignment when Admiral Gregor asked me. Eighty years of war is enough to wear even a cyborg down. Now that I’ve been here and started the work, I feel like I am needed here. I can do more than just kill beings I’m told to kill. I can build a place where we can make offspring and I can help you raise them.”
“And they would have the chance to know their grandfather,” she said. “I know Dad is not going anywhere.”
“Phantom is a pristine world, and the cyborg colony is only about fifty years old. Our life there would hardly be that different from here. My brothers want to stay, too now that they’ve seen the plans for the community.”
Danya put her arms around Vyken’s waist and looked up at him, blue eyes sparkling happily. “I would go anywhere with you, Vyken Dark, here is as good a place as any.”
“I love you,” he said softly and lowered his mouth to hers to seal their future with a kiss.
