Twisted Metal Heart (The Deviant Future Book 3)

by Eve Langlais

  “All joking aside, what would you do if I kissed you?” he asked. Shove at him in disgust? Avoid it entirely?

  “Let’s find out.” The words were a hot flutter over his lips before she pressed her mouth to his.

  She kissed him, softly, sweetly. The plush feel of her mouth slanting over his was intoxicating. She explored slowly, bringing all his focus on the connection of their flesh. The tingle that spread from it.

  His blood pounded through his body. Need pulsed inside. Pulsed elsewhere, too.

  In that moment, he felt very much alive—and very hard. It was good to know that part of him still worked. What he found more astonishing was, despite his injuries, she didn’t turn away. She kissed him with a passion that had him groaning into her mouth. His hands skimmed her frame, rousing a need in him that burned hotly.

  That left him disappointed when she moved away.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound like a wolgar whining for a scratch.

  “To bed. We have a big day tomorrow.”

  Not his bed apparently. His tense body trembled, and he wanted to yell at her. Demand she return and finish the kiss. Keep making him believe that everything would turn out just fine.

  Instead, she shut the door behind her, and for a moment, despair and loneliness grabbed at him and tried to tug him over to their side. He chose to give in to arousal instead, hoped she was watching when he masturbated. Turned out his right hand could still do the job.

  Four

  Leaving Titan, Riella went directly to her room and paced. Everything inside her pounded—blood, desire, disbelief. She’d kissed him on an impulse. She couldn’t have said why. And once she did, her senses exploded.

  Which she didn’t understand. She’d kissed men before. When she left the citadel on business, she often had her flings. To her, it was just like exercising, a different way of blowing off steam. She could go months without even thinking of sex. Months more with just masturbation as her solution.

  When she did decide to act on her urges, it was a quick thing—in, out, and done. Never in the citadel. Never out of desire.

  Until now.

  Something about Titan fired her blood and shortened her breath. She looked at him and heat curled between her legs. She touched him and that spark turned into a quiver.

  She lay on her bed and cupped herself over her underpants. The fabric couldn’t hide the moist heat. She did nothing else. Just lay there, holding herself and staring at the ceiling. Not a very interesting ceiling.

  It managed to do the trick. She cooled down. She moved her hand away. Wondered what she should do with Titan.

  Tomorrow they’d fit him with limbs, and she wasn’t feeling too hopeful. Every test they ran showed he did not have the Deviant gene. Without it, he was pre-evolution, meaning the bionics wouldn’t bond properly. Not might not. Would not. The flesh would adhere, but the bionics would never truly act as limbs. She should prepare to deal with his disappointment.

  Perhaps give him a kiss or more…

  The next day, Alfred chastised her the moment she appeared. “There is still time to put him outside and deliver the arm and leg to a paying client.”

  “Alfred! We are not throwing him out.” But she might have to find a way to send him back to be with his people. Or in the worst case, leave him in the citadel and relocate. It was time. She’d lingered too long here already. Time to find a new place to live with a new vein of ore to play with.

  “You are being emotional about this. You know what the correct thing to do is.”

  She did, and if she was being absolutely ruthless, then she would have never brought him inside in the first place. But she had, and now she couldn’t put him back out. Because, unlike Alfred, she did feel.

  “We are not tossing him out. We will fit him with the limbs and give him a day or so to adjust. Then we leave.”

  “Leave?” Alfred straightened. “Are we going on a trip?”

  “We’re moving.”

  “Temporarily or a full relocation?” Alfred, always practical.

  “Full.” She sighed. She’d miss this place. Fully equipped, and it had taken years to outfit it the way she wanted.

  “Destination?” he asked.

  Again, the right answer nagged her. She should be moving to the next forgotten citadel, or an underground bunker. She knew where there were a few. Dotted throughout the Emerald domain, and elsewhere, they were the remnants of a time when humans still mostly lived underground. A few of the more innovative, through the use of clever machinery, could shift their observatories topside. The entire underground system was linked by tunnels, a crazy warren of intersections and dead ends. Rooms that spilled into sudden lakes, full of dangers. Places where the floor disappeared and the hole went on forever.

  It was abandoned when humans emerged to reclaim the surface. These days, only the main tunnel through the mountain and its entrance were guarded by the Enclave and fairly safe, but the sections leading off of them were no longer wandered because of the danger they posed.

  Desperate people didn’t care about danger. Riella had been using the tunnels for more than a decade now. The citadel had been her home the longest. She’d finally gotten everything going just right.

  Then he arrived.

  She realized she’d been staring blankly, and Alfred had said something.

  “Well?” he grumbled impatiently. The one emotion he was good at.

  “I was thinking.”

  “Not again. Nothing good can come of that.”

  She frowned. “That was sexist.”

  “Has nothing to do with your gender but the fact that your grand thoughts often lead to bad ideas.”

  “They do not.”

  “I am not going to waste time elucidating every incident. Since you are determined to waste these limbs…” Alfred had a pair of drones grab the finished arm and leg.

  “Maybe the test was wrong.”

  “He’s not a Deviant gene carrier and shows no sign of anything but basic pre-Fall attributes.”

  “You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

  “Evolution happens for a reason,” Alfred said, not for the first time.

  “I know, but normal evolution has a species moving the same way. The Deviant gene is diverse.” It could be psionic based, coming completely from within, or visible. The most coveted being wings, but the most common thing they got was horns and tails, plus leathery skin.

  “With the exception of humans, the Deviant gene is active in every single living animal species that has been studied thus far on the surface.”

  “Which is not very many, given those same scientists are too scared to actually leave their domes and find more examples to study.”

  Alfred rolled his shoulders and then rolled toward the exit. “Perhaps at our next location you could decide to have a hobby that involves the wildlife instead of disagreeing with every single thing I say.”

  “Now, Alfred,” she teased. “That wouldn’t be any fun.”

  “You know humor isn’t my strong point.” He paused by the door of Titan’s room. “You didn’t lock it.”

  She shrugged. “Where is he going to go?”

  Alfred cast a look at her. “Do you want him to see everything? What if he told the wrong person?”

  “It won’t matter what he says, because we’re leaving.”

  “You’re what?” The door had opened as she spoke and Titan sat on the stool just on the other side, wearing a loose shirt and pants.

  She didn’t look at him. Couldn’t because her lips tingled remembering the kiss. She pressed her legs tight.

  “You should strip and get on the bed so we can get started.” She gave the brusque order.

  He didn’t move. “Before you do anything, I want to see them.”

  Rather than ask permission, Alfred had the drones lay the limbs across the bed. Titan used the stool to scoot across the floor. He reached for the leg first, pulling it over his lap, a frown betwee
n his brows.

  “It’s not what I expected.”

  “I went with a simple model for you. Something realistic,” she explained.

  “If you ignore the metal.” His jaw tightened. He ran his hands up the smoothness of it. “How is it made? Tri-dimensional printer?”

  She shook her head. “Each piece is poured into molds based on the design then assembled by hand.”

  He looked away from the leg to Riella. “Isn’t that less precise?”

  “Humanity is all about the differences,” she said with a grin.

  “How does it know what I want it to do? Do you have wires to connect it to my nervous system? A chip that you’re going to implant?”

  “No chip.” She shook her head. “There are probes on the end that will insert themselves into your flesh and connect to your nervous system. How well they work depends on you.”

  “Not the most reassuring recommendation.” He set the leg aside and grabbed the arm. “And you said there were no batteries in them.”

  “Charging or power are not required, although I would advise if you get them wet or spend too much time in a damp climate that you grease them like you would skin.”

  “Lube my joints. Got it.” He replaced the arm and then looked at her. “You implied I’d be leaving once I got them.”

  “I would assume so given you have a home elsewhere.”

  “Does this mean you’ve got some wheels I can borrow?”

  “Kind of.” She didn’t look at Alfred, who surely glared. He knew they only had one vehicle at the moment. She’d yet to have the argument with him that if they were leaving with the only mode of transportation then it seemed only fair they take Titan part way and drop him closer to his home.

  “Guess I should stop procrastinating and try those metal things on for size.”

  Alfred gathered the arm and leg. She glanced away as Titan made his way onto the bed. His pride wouldn’t want her offering to help. And it would never occur to Alfred.

  “Remove the shirt,” Alfred ordered, placing the leg on the table to wait its turn.

  “I just got the shirt on,” Titan grumbled. “Least you could do if you’re going to leave me half naked is turn up the heat. This place is like an ice box.”

  “Do you always complain this much?” Riella asked, turning to watch as Alfred brought the arm over the harness.

  It slid in, and the straps with their special clips held it in place. She edged closer and lay her hands on the metal. It warmed against her fingers.

  “How does it feel?” she asked.

  “Like you tied a metal arm to me.” The sarcasm rolled off his tongue.

  She stepped away and watched as Alfred tugged down the leg on his pants enough to expose the shorn thigh. The bionic leg fitted nicely against the skin. She ran her fingers over the seam, the metal she touched only slightly warmer than his skin.

  His body trembled, and the new leg jiggled.

  “Sit up,” Alfred ordered.

  “Would it kill you to say please?” Titan grumbled, shifting to a sitting position that used his organic arm only. The bionic one hung by his side.

  She moved closer and once again ran her fingers over it, checking it sat snugly and wouldn’t come loose.

  “Now what?”

  “The painful part,” Alfred remarked.

  “I’m sorry, but this will hurt,” she announced, closing her hands around the seam between flesh and metal before activating the limbs.

  Unfortunately, she had to also keep him awake. The nerve pathways formed better with an active mind than an unconscious one. Most people screamed when she gave them small modifications.

  Not Titan. He gritted his jaw and glared.

  Tougher than any man she’d met. After releasing him, the bionics started to mesh. She ran her hands over the new limbs, feeling them heat with the joining, able to see in her mind’s eye all the articulations that made it function.

  He endured all the pain as the metal connected to his flesh. When it was all said and done, the only sign of his exertion appeared as a hint of sweat at his brow.

  She pointed to his new arm. “Can you lift it?”

  He looked at the limb. “No.”

  A frown creased her brow. “Not even a bit?”

  “What did you expect? A human brain can’t talk to metal. And I don’t have the Deviant gene.” He glared at her as if daring her to admit otherwise.

  “Even if you don’t, the bionics in that arm are special.” She ran her fingers along it, teasing the tooled surface.

  “Special doesn’t make it magical.”

  “Magic isn’t real. This is real,” she said, her fingers stopping on his.

  “Real in the sense it exists, but it’s not alive. Metal can’t be flesh.”

  “Flesh or metal. Does it really matter what you wear?” She squeezed his hand. A metal finger spasmed and stilled. A good if weak sign.

  She stroked down his body, grabbed the foot of his new leg, and rotated it on the ankle. “See if you can repeat the motion.”

  He stared at her, intensely unhappy. “I can’t.”

  “You have to try.”

  “I am still trying to lift the fucking arm,” he snapped.

  “Don’t speak to her like that.” Alfred took offense.

  “We just installed them. Give it time.”

  “How much time? I thought these things would bond with me no matter what. Right now, they’re just dead weight.”

  “Give it time.”

  They did give it time. But three days later, his movement was still limited. Titan was frustrated and depressed, Alfred was haranguing her to leave, and Riella wanted to try something drastic.

  Alfred, of course, didn’t approve. Although he took great pleasure in thrusting a needle into Titan. A good thing the drugs acted quickly because the man took offense and uttered a bellow that fizzled as he slumped.

  While he slept, Riella worked quickly setting up an IV, a tube in her arm leading to his.

  “A blood transfusion won’t automatically make him Deviant,” Alfred remarked.

  “It won’t hurt either. I’m just trying to jumpstart the bionics.”

  Because, without any kind of bond, Titan was right; they were fairly useless.

  “The man obviously has some kind of genetic blockage. Strip the limbs, melt them down, and we’ll reuse them with our next client.”

  She threw a sharp look at Alfred. “Would you stop it already. I am not giving up. Not yet.”

  When Titan woke two days later—because she kept him under as long as she dared—he roared, “Alfred! I am going to fucking twist your little head off and use it as a kick ball.”

  “That seems rather drastic,” Riella said, entering his room on the tail end of the threat.

  “He drugged me.”

  She shrugged. “In order to work on you.”

  “More failed experiments?” he said with a sneer.

  “Actually, we finally managed a rudimentary connection to the bionics.”

  “No, you haven’t, or I’d be giving you the finger right now.”

  “We need to teach your brain next,” she replied. “Alfred?” She retreated from the bedside as Alfred approached, pulling out small balls from a sack he’d brought in with him.

  Alfred threw. Titan caught it with his right hand. Alfred threw again. And again. Once the organic arm was occupied, he threw fast, too fast for Titan to catch, meaning he hit Titan again and again.

  Titan growled and tried to duck, doing his best to use his one arm to catch and bat. Until finally he roared, “Enough!” and the bionic one swung.

  She and Alfred moved out of the way before it connected.

  She waited.

  Titan took a moment before he slowly said, “I just moved it.”

  “You did.”

  “How?” He stared at it. “Why won’t it move again?”

  “Because you’re thinking about it. Stop it. Ignore it. Just act natural.”

  “
Act natural she says.” Titan rolled his eyes. “You say that like it’s easy.”

  “I figured it out. I am sure you can, too.”

  “Did you have as much trouble getting your arm to obey?”

  “No.”

  “Meaning I’m difficult. Doesn’t that just figure.” He slid to the floor and stood, an impressive male with a fine physique and few clothes who towered over her. “So, is this the best I can expect, occasional movement when I least expect it?”

  “With that kind of attitude, I doubt you’ll even have that.”

  “Told you we shouldn’t have wasted those limbs on him,” Alfred grumbled. “We could have used them on a real paying client.”

  “Because you sell body parts.” Titan shook his head. “That’s all kinds of weird, and I’m surprised the Enclave allows it.”

  “Please. Some of them are our best clients,” she said

  “Now that he’s got the limbs, I’m going to prepare for our departure.” Alfred turned and wheeled for the door.

  “You’re leaving?” Titan queried.

  “I have to.” They’d spotted an Enclave patrol not far from the area. A good thing the citadel was once more hidden underground. But given it was the first patrol in…ever…she deemed it a sign she’d overstayed her welcome.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Somewhere new.” She’d yet to decide.

  “But what about all this?” He swept a hand at the machines.

  “Things can be replaced and rebuilt.”

  “Do you always go where Alfred tells you? What hold does he have on you?”

  She laughed at his assumption. “Alfred only tells me what I already know. Where he goes, I go. Where I go, he goes. We’re bound.”

  “You mean he’s your promised?”

  It took her a moment to grasp his meaning, “We’re not sexually involved.”

  “Oh.” Followed by nothing.

  “Are you sexually involved with anyone?” The words left her mouth, and she immediately wanted to retract them.

  “No.” His lips twitched. “Should have probably clarified that before we kissed.”