Aramus (7 page)

“Like hell you don’t. You worked for the
m. You saw how they treated us. Or are you going to pretend you never saw the cyborgs being kept captive?”

“The only thing I ever saw were bodies and my jailors.”

“So you deny involvement in the cyborg project?”

“Deny? Of course I am. You’re the first cyborg I’ve ever met.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s the truth.”

“The facility we pulled you from had several cyborgs incarcerated. Are you telling me they never had you examine one?”

“I think I’d kind of remember.”
Now it was she wielding the sarcasm. As the recipient, he didn’t care for it.

“So what bodies did you see?”

“Lots of mutated human ones.”

“Are you sure they were human?”

She huddled in on herself. “Yes, at least they were before the experiments.”

His attention
, which attempted to stray from her lips lower to a shadowy décolletage, sharpened and returned to her face. “Explain.”

She fidgeted. “I don’t know what they were doing, but I saw the
results. Ever watch mutant movies where mad scientists try to blend animals with humans and end up with monsters?”

“No.” But he’d seen the result of man mixing human with machine.

“Oh. Well, imagine if you can a body that’s had its DNA reprogrammed.”

“Like I’ve never fucking seen or heard of that before.”
He rolled his eyes and then almost smacked himself at his human reaction.
Get a fucking grip, soldier!

She blushed. “Sorry. I forgot for a moment who I was speaking with.”

As if.

“Anyway, as I was saying, the bodies they brought to me were deformed.”

“Deformed how?”

“
Thicker body mass. Enlarged organs, and in some cases duplicates. Extra ribs. Thicker bone growth. Fused in some cases with others. The actual density and composition was changed. And then there were things growing from the body. Protrusions from the spine for the most part, skull too at times. Elongated teeth. Grayish skin tones. Longer fingers, but only on some of them.”

Aramus frowned. “And these weren’t birth defects?”

“No. At least I don’t think so. Neither were they grafts.”

“Did
your employers say what caused them?”

“I tried asking once.” Her gaze dropped to her lap where her fingers knotted with each other.

Even he recognized fear when he saw it. “And?”

“I woke up three days later with a broken jaw, bruised ribs
, and a healthy respect for silence.”

A sudden rage filled him. Who would dare beat this tiny
, defenseless female for daring to ask a reasonable question? The same people who had no problem taking a simple soldier involuntarily drafted and turning him into a fighting machine.

“In your opinion
, what were they trying to do?”

“Other than play
God?”

“There is no god.”
He’d studied the Bible, done his research, and arrived at this conclusion because there just wasn’t any concrete proof. How so many could believe in an entity no one had ever seen or touched, he didn’t understand.

Again, she surprised him.
“On that we agree. But they certainly wanted to set themselves up as creators. However, you asked what I thought they’d been trying to do. Given what I saw during the autopsies, I’d say they were trying to inject humans with foreign DNA.”

“
Foreign as in…”

“This is going to sound crazy, but I think they were using some kind of alien DNA.”

Why did it seem like everywhere he turned, someone was trying to cram evidence of ET’s down his throat? “Do you have any proof?”

“No.”

‘”Then I don’t understand how you can jump to that conclusion.”

She fluttered her hands and blew out a breath. “Call it instinct. Something about the organs of the affected bodies
just doesn’t seem right. Certain characteristics kept repeating and are unlike anything I’ve ever run across. If you did a DNA comparison, you’d probably know for sure.”

Aramus made a mental note to re
-question Percy. Given he was in charge of collecting and testing samples, he should know and had either misled or withheld that information from Aramus.
Not for long. I have ways of making him talk.

“How did you end up working for the company?” Aramus had no logical reason to ask, other than a curiosity to know what would lead a woman such as herself to agree to work for such a vile group.

“They came to me and lied. Said they had a great opportunity to study medical breakthroughs. The money and benefits they quoted were a dream come true. I jumped on the chance.”

“They bought you.”

“I didn’t know when I signed on what they were up to, or I would have never agreed.”

“So you claim.”

She puffed up with indignation. “Believe me or not. It’s the truth. What about you? What were your reasons for volunteering for the cyborg project?”

“Volunteer?” At that he laughed. “None of us ever volunteered. One day we went to sleep as
normal men and women, and the next we woke as machines.”

“You mean they did this to you without permission?”

“Are you really so naïve to think anyone would volunteer for this?”

“But the media says—
”

“A lot of things. Haven’t you learned by now most of them aren’t true?” His smile mocked her.

Instead of fighting back with more words, her shoulders slumped. “I’m realizing more and more just how dumb I was.”

He ordered his tongue to not say the words,
you’re not dumb, just too trusting.
He didn’t owe this female reassurance. She was just like all the other mindless humans on earth, believing what the media, military, and corporations spoon-fed them.

“That’s all for now. A unit will return you to your quarters
until we have need of you again.”
Say later tonight in my room wearing nothing.
Aramus shoved the unworthy thought away.

“You mean my cell? What are you planning to do with me and the others?”

There was the feisty woman he preferred to see. It made it easy to be himself. “None of your damned business.”

“It is my business. I have a right to know.”

Impertinently asked, he should have voiced his usual reply, “Death once you’re no use to me.” Instead, he said, “Why don’t you fear me?”

“Why would I?”
She met his gaze and held it despite the slight tremor in her frame.

“I am cyborg.”

“And?”

“And I hate humans.”

“All of us? That seems rather illogical. Only a fraction of humans, by your own admission, are to blame for what happened to you.”

How fascinating. She thought to use his own need for logic against him.
“You have seen the media reports. We are bloodthirsty monsters. We live to kill.”

“As you point
ed out, the media doesn’t always get its facts straight.”

“Oh
, they are right about certain things. We have killed. Myself, I’ve murdered without compunction. Countless gallons of human blood have stained my hands, and yet you have the balls to question me.”

“I don’t think I’ve grown a hairy set of balls since my imprisonment,” she quipped with a shy smile that jolted him. “
Yes, I’ll admit I was fooled by the reports I heard. But I’m not stupid. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that perhaps the media reports have been grossly exaggerated.”

“Did you not see the installation? We killed those running it.
Slaughtered them.” Why he felt a need to shove this fact in her face he couldn’t have said. Did he want her to fear him?

“I saw
, and maybe this makes me a monster, but I’m glad. Those mercenaries and doctors running the place weren’t human. They deserved what they got. I’m glad they’re dead.”

Damn her for raising her in his estimation with those vehemently said words.
“I could kill you right now and feel no remorse.”

“
Yet you won’t.”

“Says who? No one would stop me.”

“You won’t do it.”

“What makes you say that?”

Her blue eyes met his, unwavering before his glower. “You’re not a monster.”

Four
simple words, and yet they struck the heart of him better than a well-aimed bullet. If he’d been standing, he would have staggered.
Fuck me, but she’s dangerous.
He needed to put her in her place, but short of snapping her neck, which he couldn’t do—for practical reasons because he might still need to question her—he needed to make her understand he wasn’t her friend. That he was a force to be reckoned with, a cyborg to be feared. What could he do to this female that wouldn’t damage her and would make her eye him differently?

He blame
d his malfunctioning cock for what he did next. And for those who wondered, he beat it soundly for its actions—later…while reliving the kiss.

One m
inute, the daunting cyborg sat in his chair, trying to convince her he was a monster. The next, he’d dragged her onto his desk and kissed her.

S
urprised by his rapid action, it took Riley a moment to process it. Her body, however, immediately enjoyed it. Despite the situation, she’d found herself attracted to the cyborg the moment she’d stepped into his space.

Sure, he appeared
intimidating. What man wouldn’t? Towering about six and a half feet with muscles a steroid user would envy and a gruff attitude to put any prison warden to shame. Yet, the more they spoke, him trying to shock her with his bluntness and violent outlook, the more she saw the man within. A male who’d been dealt a harsh hand, who didn’t trust, who dealt with situations the only way he knew how—with violence. And yet, this cyborg, this man who wanted her to see him as a brutal killer, had saved her and the others, treating them with more respect than the so-called humans he reviled.

He was no more a monster than she was
and nothing like the media would have her believe.
I can’t believe I bought into their propaganda.

He was also ridiculously sexy. Sure, he didn’t have the pampered looks of a supermodel, but he was attractive in his own right, his craggy features so masculine, so riveting. His piercing stare
had taken in her appearance and strayed to her breasts more than once in obvious male appreciation and yet not once had he made a sexual remark or innuendo.

Which was why his kiss surprised her so much. A part of her understood he did this to shock her
, to put her in her place and fear him. It had the opposite effect. Instead, as soon as their lips touched, an almost electrical sensation went through her, a tingle that heated her blood and softened her mouth so that what started as a bruising embrace turned into a sensual exploration of lips, and then the melding of tongues.

It had been so long since she’d enjoyed the touch of a man, or at least a touch not meant to cause pain. Longer still since she’d kissed
anyone, her last boyfriend so long ago she scarcely could recall his face. She gave herself to the kiss wholeheartedly, blossoming under the tender caress like a desert bloom after a sudden rain shower. Her body heated, moisture pooling between her thighs, her nipples tightening in anticipation. Even her toes curled as her whole body—

How far would it have gone had the
onboard speaker not crackled to life with a static message of, “Avion has woken.”

Despite the interruption,
he didn’t shove her away or end the kiss abruptly. With obvious reluctance, he gave her lower lip a last suck before leaning away from her. What he saw when he stared at her she would have dearly loved to know.

Whatever it was, he didn’t like
it because his face went from that of bemused kisser to hardened soldier in an instant. “Get the fuck out of here.” When she hesitated, he barked, “Now!”

Away s
he scooted, the portal to the room whisking open as she neared it allowing her to exit. She ran into the solid chest of the cyborg waiting outside. Or at least she assumed he was cyborg. Nothing about his outward appearance, other than his extreme size and fitness, made him seem inhuman.

“Sorry,” she muttered, eyes downcast, flustered at what had just occurred.

Her guard didn’t seem to notice her frazzled state because he pivoted on his heel with a blandly spoken, “Follow me.”

She almost had to run to keep up with
the male’s longer stride, but she didn’t let that stop her from asking questions, anything to get her mind off the surprise kiss. “Are you a cyborg too?”

The guard
pivoted his head, more than a normal spine could have handled, to shoot her an amused look. “What do you think?”

“That you should have auditioned for a part in
The Exorcist
.”

A crease marred the smoothness of his forehead.
“I don’t understand the reference.”

“
Sorry. I was referring to a movie I saw as a teenager.”

“One of those entertainment pieces you humans enjoy so much?”

How odd the way he spoke, as if they were two different species. Did cyborgs truly see themselves as so different?
They started out human.
And definitely kissed like one. Maybe better. Yet, they seemed to equate themselves to something on a whole different plane. Did they truly not recall their time when they lived normal lives on earth? She realized her guide was waiting for a reply. “Yes, that’s what I’m referring to. Don’t you watch them too?”

“No. They have no educational value.”

“They’re not meant to teach but pass the time.”

“I’d rather spend my time being constructive.”

“All work, no play? That doesn’t seem like much fun.”

“Fun is not a system requirement. We
have arrived at your quarters. Food will be delivered shortly. Please inform the others.”

He didn’t quite shove her through the opening, but the cyborg, who didn’t think he needed fun in his life, couldn’t get rid of her fast enough.

Before she could dwell on their odd way of viewing things—or the incredible kiss—she was bombarded by questions.

“What did they do to you?”

“What d-d-d-o they want?”

“Are we going home?”

“Are they going to k-k-kill us?”

Riley held up a hand. “Whoa. One at a time.
”

Carmen,
as usual, made sure she got the first question in. “Did you find out what their plans for us are?”

“
The guy I was speaking to didn’t say. He seemed to want to know what we were up to at the installation.”

“Did you tell him?”

“I did. I saw no point in holding back.”

“But they’re c
-c-yborgs.”

“Who have treated us more kindly than our employers.”

“For now.” Percy peered at the camera that recorded their every move and speech with wary eyes.

“What did you think of them?” Carmen asked.

Think of the cyborg whom she’d spoken with, other than the fact that he was big, sexy, and kissed better than any of her ex-boyfriends? “That they’re definitely not the bloodthirsty killers the military wants us to believe.”

“
I’d have to agree. They are not what I expected,” Carmen said, tossing her hair over her shoulder with a coy look upward.

“Why
, because they haven’t murdered us yet or ch-chopped us up for parts?” Percy and his negative attitude. Why was he so determined to believe the worst?

Riley coughed so she wouldn’t laugh. “Um, I think those parts in the news have been grossly exaggerated.”

“D-d-did you not see the c-c-carnage when they took over the installation?”

“Yes. And I also saw what so
-called humans did to the other prisoners, as well as some of us present.” She swept a hand at the mute women who sat huddled in their corner. “If you ask me, we’re better off now. At least the cyborgs rely on logic.”

“How does that help?”

“Because as long as their logic dictates they can use us, they won’t harm us.”
I think.
Because meant as a punishment or not, she didn’t count the kiss as a deterrent.

“And they’re men. Men without any women on board.”
Again, Carmen played to the camera, posing and licking her full lips.

Riley wanted to roll her eyes.
Could she be any more obvious?

“You’d sleep with them?”
Percy wrinkled his nose.

“Screw, not sleep.
Cyborgs like to fuck as much as any other man.” Carmen’s bluntness made Riley’s cheeks heat.

“And you know this because?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to spot a hard-on. Where there’s an erection, there’s a chance for seduction.”

Riley’s elation in the kiss evaporated. Had
her cyborg captor embraced Carmen too? Did he do it to all the female prisoners? She didn’t dare ask. She feared appearing stupid in front of the others, especially since she’d thought it something spur of the moment on his part.
Stupid me thinking we’d shared something.
It would wound her pride if she found out she wasn’t the only one.

“So what do we d
-d-do now?” Percy asked.

“We wait.” Wait to see if the cyborgs would let them live, or
, if as Percy feared, they’d die. In Riley’s case, she also wondered if the big guy would attempt another kiss, or more.