Authors: Mina Carter
The captain reached the back of the squad, which parted like
water to let him pass. Lyon took advantage of the distraction, grabbed Samara
and shoved her behind him, holding her in place with a hard hand on her wrist.
“I’m sure you’re not trying to inflame the situation here
solely over your…dislike of cyborgs. Are you, Corporal?”
Hawkins’ gaze shifted sideways to his superior officer. The
agony of indecision was written on his face as his eyes flicked between the
cyborgs and the captain.
“Because in case you hadn’t noticed, they do have a
hostage…”
Samara, who’d been busy trying to prize Lyon’s grip from her
wrist, looked up and waved helpfully. Lyon resisted the urge to close his eyes
and shake his head. Game face on, he smiled tightly at the captain.
“That’s not all. Cael, drop the mute.”
A dry, measured tone filled the air in the corridor; the
sound of the ship’s computer. “Self-destruct sequence initiated… Three minutes,
twenty-four seconds to self-destruct.”
The announcement dropped into a silence so complete Lyon was
surprised tumbleweeds didn’t roll past. It was a desolate wasteland of
soundlessness as Captain Marisol–Lees fixed Lyon with a steely gaze.
“Well played, Colonel.” A wry grin twisting his lips, the
captain inclined his head. A lock of dark hair fell over one eye. “Now what do
I have to give you in exchange for the release of my ship?”
Lyon didn’t let any hint of his surprise show on his face at
being referred to by his rank. His files would be sealed; Combined Fleet
Command didn’t like people having access to the complete FUBAR they’d made of
the cyborg project, so Marisol–Lees wouldn’t have seen that. Which left the
only other option… He could read the code on Lyon’s cheek.
He let the silence stretch out. Next to the captain, Hawkins
was going redder and redder.
Wonder if his head will actually explode?
Archon
mused over the commlink.
Can I shoot him?
Lyon almost squawked, but managed to hold it in. They were
both trying to drive him nuts.
No, you cannot shoot him. We’re in a corridor
with eight heavily armed marines, and one rifle between us.
“For a Fleetie, you’re very well informed, Captain.”
Despite his dislike of most humans, he had to give credit
where credit was due. Besides, there was something about the man. He had a
no-bullshit, cut-right-to-the-chase attitude that appealed to Lyon. Had
circumstances been different, he was the sort of guy Lyon would have tried to
build a friendship with.
I’ve got a rubber band and a paperclip in my pocket, if
that helps?
Archon?
Yeah?
Shut up.
The human smiled. “Thank you. However, you haven’t answered
my question. I do apologize for pushing you…but time’s a-ticking.”
Lyon opened his mouth. The usual demands for weapons and
supplies hovered on the tip of his tongue. He didn’t ask for any of them, even
though Redemption Bay was like a black hole for such supplies. Instead the
words that came out his mouth surprised him as much as it did everyone else.
“Her,” he said, pulling Samara around into view. “I want
her.”
Lyon ignored her outraged gasp, his attention on the
captain.
“Two minutes, thirty-five seconds to self-destruct,” the
computer reminded them.
Marisol–Lees’ dark-eyed gaze flicked from him to the petite woman
next to him and back again. Cold calculation showed in his eyes.
“Just her? Nothing else? You’ll relinquish control of the
ship. No…hidden surprises?”
Lyon shook his head. “Nothing. We’ll leave you in peace.”
“Done. Hawkins, stand down. Let these people leave.”
“Excellent, pleasure doing business with you, Captain. Have
a nice day,” he added, starting to walk toward the hatch as the marines backed
up.
“You can’t
do
this!” Samara blurted out, seeming to
regain her voice as he tugged her toward the boarding access and, beyond it,
his ship.
He couldn’t wait to get her aboard. The first thing he
planned to do was hole up in his quarters for…oh, a month? Yeah, a month should
be long enough. Maybe.
He stopped so suddenly she ran straight into his back. Looking
over his shoulder, he ignored the quick smirk that ghosted over Marisol–Lees’
face.
“Okay, what’s the problem?”
“This is kidnapping!”
His eyebrow lifted slightly. “Your point?”
Hawkins chose that moment to pipe up. “With all due respect,
Sir. Are you just going to let these filthy creatures take her? She’s human,
for crying out loud, she doesn’t deserve this.”
Can I shoot him now?
Archon begged.
Plllllllease?!
Before the captain could say anything Samara rounded on the
corporal. “Filthy creatures? How
dare
you? At least they don’t sleep
around…yeah, I know all about you and Jessica. And Annette…or was Amanda before
Annette?” She smiled sweetly. “Just tell the girls you sleep with you’ve got an
STD, would you, sweetheart? Makes it so much easier to treat.”
Oh. Crash and burn, baby. She’s good. Can we keep her?
Hawkins went red and started to make a strange spluttering
sound as the captain choked. Lyon didn’t know whether it was a sound of outrage
or suppressed amusement, but he didn’t hang around to find out. In one swift
move, he leaned down and threw her over his shoulder.
Ignoring her shriek of outrage, he headed for the boarding
hatch before either she or Archon could say anything else and screw the
situation up any more than it was already.
“Cael, get us ready to move and cancel the self-destruct.”
He clambered through the boarding tube with an ease that belied the fact he was
carrying a wriggling, shrieking wildcat.
“Archon!” he bellowed, suddenly becoming aware that the
Gemini hadn’t followed him. “Stop antagonizing the humans and get your butt in
here!”
Aye, Colonel, just…dealing with something. Be there in a
moment.
Archon’s voice was full of the sort of amusement that made the
hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Usually that meant Archon was up to no
good. A fact that was borne out as he dropped into the main section of the
shuttle to find both Cael and Eoin suddenly very busy and avoiding his gaze.
Dumping Samara into one of the passenger seats, he fixed her
with a steely look. “Stay, or I’ll cuff you to it.”
He straightened and looked at the other two cyborgs. The
sound of the human ship’s internal defenses firing echoed through the boarding
tube at the same moment Archon dropped through it, a smirk on his face.
“Right. Out with it,” he demanded over the sound of the
boarding mechanism closing up and retracting. Within a heartbeat, the small
shuttle lurched as Cael gunned the engines. With the
Valkyrie
back under
her crew’s control, they needed to be gone. Fast.
“What? I didn’t do a thing. Honest.”
Archon tried an innocent look, which didn’t wash with Lyon.
He’d known the Gemini virtually since he’d been pulled from his tank. There
wasn’t an innocent bone in his body.
He sighed. He’d heard the ship’s internal defenses. Defenses
Archon had no control over. That was Archon through and through. Why do
something yourself when you could get someone else to do the dirty work?
“Cael? What did this POS promise you?”
“A box of Helarian chocolates and a foot massage,” she
replied promptly.
“And what did you do?”
“Shot that corporal in the ass.”
Chapter Five
Samara couldn’t help herself. She giggled. Although, to be
fair, it was more of a snort than a giggle. Her mother always said she sounded
like a cross between a horse and a donkey when she laughed.
She couldn’t help it though. Despite the fact that, for all
intents and purposes, she’d just been kidnapped by a group of cyborgs, hearing
that that Corporal Hawkins had been shot in the ass just did it for her.
The giggle looped and became unstoppable. Hilarity filled
her until tears streamed down her cheeks and she was holding her sides to stop
them from aching.
Two sets of eyes—one green and one brown—looked at her in
concern. Samara couldn’t do anything but laugh back at them, amused afresh that
they were so concerned about her after they’d kidnapped her.
“Is she all right?” Archon frowned, the big man looking to
his bigger commander in concern. “Won’t she bust a blood vessel or something
like that?”
Lyon shrugged, a look of bewilderment on his face she found intensely
amusing. “How the hell should I know? I’m not an expert on human physiology.”
“She shouldn’t be that shade of red, surely?”
Samara flopped sideways onto the seat next to her, until she
was lying on her side, and howled. She’d never found anything so hilarious in
her life. In the back of her mind she knew it was a stress reaction. She’d been
kidnapped and rather than freak out, her twisted mind had decided to find it
funny instead.
“She’s hysterical. We should slap her out of it,” Archon
announced. “Should I slap her?”
“No!” Samara and Lyon announced at the same time, the latter
with a glare that would have frozen the blood in the smaller cyborg’s veins.
Had he actually been looking, that was. Instead he pouted and flounced off to
the other side of the cabin to fling himself onto the opposite row of bench
seats like a sulky teenager.
“I never get any fun!”
“Oh, how old are you? Bloody grow up.”
She shook her head and sat up, straightening her clothes and
rubbing at her aching cheeks. She hadn’t laughed like that for years. But then,
she hadn’t been kidnapped or encountered a more stressful situation than
running out of pre-packed dressings in the five years she’d been in the
service.
Lyon huffed and nodded. “Yeah, what she said.”
She rounded on him next, her freaking-out-fueled amusement
replaced by fury. The look in her eyes hard, she swooped in like a Valkyrie of
legend to stab a finger into the center of his broad chest.
“And you can be quiet, Mr. I kidnap people without so much
as a by-your-leave. How
dare
you just yank me off my ship without even
asking?”
“Hmmm. I did ask.”
“Not. Me!”
He lifted an eyebrow, which only increased Samara’s ire. Did
he only have like…three facial expressions or something?
“Yeah, boss. You need to brush up on your seduction
technique. The ladies do like to be asked…” Archon, busy studying under his
fingernails, drawled.
“Yeah. Exactly.” She nodded vehemently, trying to get
through to the knuckleheaded cute-as-hell cyborg in front of her.
“Even if they don’t have a choice.”
“Wait. What? No! Not no choice. There should always be a
choice!” She drew in a strangled breath, fighting her anger and marshaling her
vocal cords and lungs for another volley.
Lyon shot Archon a look and shoved his hand over her mouth
to stem the tirade that was coming. “Archon! Really not helping here.”
She’d never really understood the term “her vision went red”
when people spoke about anger. She’d always thought it was one of those sayings
people used to explain something that didn’t have a direct description. Until
the moment Lyon silenced her in such an arrogant, overbearing manner and red
did indeed filter down from the top of her eyes to the bottom, painting
everything in shades of scarlet.
A snarl in the back of her throat, she opened her mouth against
his palm and bit down. Hard.
Lyon snatched his hand back, forced into a half-second fight
with her teeth for possession of the fleshy bit near his thumb, and looked at
her in disbelief.
“How
dare
you?” she demanded, not caring now that he
could bend her in half and break her like a twig if he wanted to. She didn’t
care she was stuck on his ship, with four beings who had more than enough
reason to hate her species. Anger ran through her veins, embedded so deeply
that she shook with the force of it.
“Uh-oh. Lover’s tiff. Little woman doesn’t look too happy,
boss.”
Eyes locked on hers, Lyon flicked Archon an offensive
gesture and moved forward, backing her up against the side of the cabin. Her
fury shifted, turning into something equally as hot at the dark, dangerous look
in his eyes.
Unwilling to back down, she met him look for look. She knew
that if she showed fear now, then he’d walk all over her. He’d kidnapped her,
yes. But he’d
asked
for her, named her as his price for leaving the
Valkyrie
in one piece. Which meant she had value to him, surely? That she wasn’t some
passing fancy to be used and tossed aside. She had to hope so or this whole
situation became something far darker and more frightening. Became a situation
she really didn’t want to think about.
Her back bumped against the cold metal of the cabin wall,
but still he kept coming. Kept coming until she could feel the heat of his skin
beating against hers, even through their clothing. His face was hard as he
looked down into hers. His breath whispered over her skin, stirring the strands
of hair that lay against her neck.
“I am in charge here, Ms. Williams. Do not forget that. Or
make the mistake of challenging my authority. You won’t like how that ends.”
* * * * *
They were a family. For the next few hours as the combat
shuttle left the system, taking her farther away from the Valkyrie, Samara
watched the four cyborgs as they interacted with each other. Comfortably curled
up in the seats at the back of the cabin, she listened as Archon and the female
cyborg, Cael, teased each other good-naturedly. Each comment sparked another
and another as they tried to best each other in what she could see was an
affectionate game of wits. One she had no doubt had started years ago and would
continue for years to come.
Lyon sat in the copilot’s chair, but rather than the usual
navigation systems, the console was filled with strange code and other symbols
she didn’t recognize. Whatever it was though, the heavily built man seemed
engrossed in it, only looking up to fire back a comment when his name was
dropped in the argument between Archon and Cael.