by Anna Hackett
Xenia! “Not yet.”
“The clock’s ticking,” he said.
She stiffened. “I will find it.”
He held up his hands. “I don’t doubt your abilities, Xenia. In fact, I respect the hell out of them.”
She blinked and watched him warily as he stalked closer.
“Show me what you do have.”
She nodded. He stood over her shoulder as she showed him the documents on the screen. Outlined the things she’d ruled out. He made a few humming noises in his throat. But all she could think about was the fact that he smelled so good.
He reached forward to point at the screen. “I think we can discount this.”
He was in her space, so close she could feel the heat of him. She kept her face blank, her hands curled together in her lap. This insanity would pass. It had to.
“Do you ever wear this down?” He fingered a strand of her hair.
She jerked her head to the side and looked back at him. “No touching.”
His gaze sharpened on her. “Why?”
“Because.”
“Not a very precise answer for a CenSec.”
“I don’t want you touching me.”
He leaned down until his face was a whisper away from hers. “Really? Why do I get the impression you’re lying to me?”
“Prime Saros.” The office computer’s modulated voice filled the room. “Your next appointment is here.”
“Thank you.” He tilted his head and focused back on Xenia. “What’s your next step in the investigation?”
“I’m going to head out and take a look at the location where the Rahl had their base here in Haxx.” And get out of your office and away from you.
“Great. Computer, reschedule my appointment.” Axton looked at Xenia. “I’m coming with you.”
“No, I don’t—”
“I’m. Coming.”
Xenia gritted her teeth. “Fine.”
Chapter Two
Xenia pulled the transport to a stop in front of a large warehouse. She studiously ignored the man beside her. Instead, she focused on the empty building.
When the Rahl had attacked, they’d targeted the planet’s CenSecs and taken Axton hostage as leverage. Then they’d overtaken this warehouse belonging to one of the academies as their base.
“There’s still security tape up,” Axton said.
Xenia nodded, eying the black and red electro-tape cordoning off the warehouse doors. “When the Rahl realized they were losing, some barricaded themselves in here and managed to set explosives. After they were captured and the explosives squad cleared the building, we secured it. The squad said the high-tech explosives the Rahl were using don’t always show up on scans. They were concerned there could be more hidden in there. No one’s been in since.”
They exited the car and made their way up to the entrance.
“Prime Saros, you need to listen to me while we’re in there. There’s a possibility the Rahl might have left other surprises. My primary objective is the Codex, but my secondary objective is ensuring your safety.”
“Call me Axton and I’ll listen.”
Oh, no. “It isn’t appropriate.”
“Axton.”
Xenia huffed out a breath. The man knew just how to get under her skin. “Axton.”
He smiled, his teeth white against his bronze skin. “There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“Just stay behind me.” She pressed her palm to the Centax Security lock on the door. It read her bio-ID and opened a second later.
Inside was dark and musty, with a sharp, wild scent underlying it. Xenia pulled an ion light out of her pocket and handed it to Axton.
“Thanks. What about you?”
She tapped the implant above her eye. “I have exceptional night vision, thermal imaging and magnification.”
The warehouse was just one big space. The Rahl had made living quarters off to one side. Beds lined the wall, and couches and tables were grouped haphazardly in the center of the space.
On the other side of the warehouse were shiny steel cages.
Xenia’s stomach clenched. Her fellow CenSecs had told her about the Centaxian women they’d freed from here. Women destined to be sent off-planet as payment for the Rahl’s services.
She turned toward the living area. “Keep a look out for any computer consoles, communicators, or anything else you think might give us a clue to the Codex’s location.”
Axton raised a dark brow. “Yes, boss.”
She ignored him. Her night vision showed the dark space in shades of green. There were food scraps, clothing and trash littered around. The Rahl were not the cleanliest of species. She pulled up her retinal display that overlaid information over her vision. She ran a systematic search, sectioning the warehouse into a grid. Axton wasn’t so orderly. He stopped at anything that took his interest.
That just highlighted the differences between them. He was enhanced, for sure, but not as much as she was. He was the handsome, charming face of their planet, while she was a trained killer.
She needed to find the Codex and get far away from Axton Saros. Before he realized what he did to her.
She focused on the storage boxes in front of her, opening them one by one.
“Hey, I might have something.”
She looked over. He was holding something up. “What is it?”
He flipped through what looked like a large wad of…paper?
“Looks like a sketchbook. An actual paper sketchbook.” He turned a few pages. “Whoever the artist was, they weren’t bad.”
Xenia walked over to look. They were simple sketches done in black ink. One was a beautiful rendering of the Haxx skyline. Another showed a huge Rahl—striped pattern on his skin, his claws raised and his mouth open in a roar that bared huge fangs.
Axton turned the page and they both gasped.
The sketch showed a sheaf of old papers lying on the very table beside them. The image on the uppermost page was of a humanoid man, arms and legs outstretched within a square and circle—da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.
“The Codex was definitely here,” Axton murmured.
But where did the Rahl hide it? Was it still here or had they moved it somewhere else in Haxx? Xenia ran the probabilities. “There is a fifty percent chance the Codex is still hidden somewhere here in the building.”
He closed the sketchbook. “Then let’s keep looking.”
Xenia searched every shadowed corner. Nothing. Frustration ate at her but as always, she hid it away.
A growl echoed through the warehouse.
In a flash, she moved in front Axton and set her systems scanning. She couldn’t detect any movement…wait, there was something stirring back behind the cages.
A huge Rahl burst out of the darkness.
Xenia leaped forward to engage.
The Rahl was at least a foot taller than she was with a heavily muscled body. She shot a roundhouse kick to his jaw. His head snapped back and he roared. She spun out of the range of his claws.
He was fast, charging at her with his head down. She leaped high into the air, over his head, and landed behind him. She shoved a palm to his lower back and used the deadly implants in her palms to electrocute him.
It took a second for her to realize that his body wasn’t warm. In fact, he felt downright cold.
And that her jolt of electricity didn’t affect him. What the hell?
He rounded on her and slashed out with his claws. She evaded and aimed a punch at his face.
He roared again.
Xenia let her fight training take over. Hand-to-hand was her specialty. She whirled and spun as she kicked, punched, and aimed blows designed to take a man of his size down.
None of it affected him.
And he didn’t say a single word. The Rahl she’d encountered before had liked to trash talk.
She used moves that had immobilized plenty of Rahl during the coup. Nothing. No reaction. She dodged a kick. His face was caught in
one expression of rage and his eyes were…dead. She ducked his claws.
But was a little too slow.
His claws raked her uniform, the high-tech fabric thankfully protecting her skin. But the force of the blow should have knocked her off her feet. Instead, it had felt like a tap.
Realization came in a flash.
“He’s a hologram,” she yelled. “Find the projector.”
Xenia jumped into the air, spun and slammed a kick—backed by all her weight—at the Rahl’s head.
As her foot connected, the Rahl’s image wavered, then disappeared.
She landed in a crouch.
Axton emerged from the shadows, a microprojector nestled in his palm. He stared at the rip marks on her uniform. “How can a hologram do that?”
“It was an advanced haptic hologram that you can feel. It’s experimental. I’ve seen prototypes from the Axis Academy. They just can’t quite get the minor details perfected, like facial expressions and body temp.”
Axton jiggled his hand, studying the projector. “This is Centaxian.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “They used our own tech against us.”
“Yes.” She felt the same simmering fury that was in his voice. It had been months since they’d defeated the Rahl and they were still haunting Centax.
“You move like liquid lightning when you fight,” he said.
Xenia felt a flush trying to work free. She wrestled it back. “My training.”
“Such lethal grace. No, I think it’s all you.”
She cleared her throat. Stick to the mission. “Let’s keep looking.” She headed to the next search grid.
Moments later, Axton called out. He was shining his light up at the roof and frowning. “There’s something up there.”
“On the roof?” She saw his ion light reflect off an object.
“Something suspended on a wire.” He wandered closer.
Xenia did the same, zooming in with her enhanced vision. “It’s a Sync communicator.” Her pulse tripped. Finally, something.
They both stood below the dangling communicator.
“It’s too high up,” he said. “I’ll call to have someone bring a—”
Xenia bent her legs and jumped.
Her enhanced strength took her high into the air. She reached out her hand, arm extended straight above her head.
Her fingers brushed the Sync but she wasn’t quite high enough.
She landed back beside Axton, crouching to absorb the impact. When she stood, he was watching her.
“Impressive.”
“But not enough. I just barely touched it.”
He cupped his palms together and put one knee down. “Let me give you a boost. Should give you enough extra height to reach it.”
She really didn’t want to get too close to him, but the quicker they got the Codex back, the quicker she could be off on her next mission.
Xenia drew herself up. She put one boot onto Axton’s hands.
“Ready?” His eyes had a faint neon glow in the darkness.
“Ready.”
He flung her up and she used her own strength at the same time.
This time she gripped the Sync. One hard yank and it broke free of the wire.
She landed back beside Axton and held it up. “I—”
There was a strange thwap sound. She spun and saw a net fly out of the darkness.
It wrapped around her and knocked her back into Axton. The metal ropes of the net contracted, crushing their bodies together.
“What the hell?” Axton yelled.
His arms locked around her. She scrambled to stay on her feet, her face pressed against his chest.
The net tightened.
Then the floor beneath them gave way and they were falling.
***
Axton swallowed a groan at the hard landing. It was so dark that he struggled to make out anything. He had no idea where the ion light had ended up.
The ugly recollection of his prison cell lurked in the back of his mind. But the fact he wasn’t alone made it slink away. He mightn’t know where the hell he was, but he did know that he was trapped with Xenia’s body plastered against his. Things could be worse.
“The Rahl set a trap,” she said.
Most people would think her tone emotionless. But Axton detected the faintest trace of anger vibrating in there. “Yes, they did. Can you tell where we are?”
“Some sort of…box under the floor. A trapdoor closed after us. The room is—”
She paused, and he guessed she was scanning their location
“Four meters by four meters and made of metal.”
He pushed against the net. “We need to get this net off.”
“Hang on.” She wriggled against him.
Her thigh slid between his and desire bloomed to life, blood rushing to his cock. He coughed to hide a moan.
She kept moving, struggling against the metal rope, her body rubbing against his. He felt her firm breasts against his chest, the puff of her breath against his neck, and that long, firm thigh brushing against his—
She froze.
“Yes, I have an erection. You wiggling against me like that…well, I’m not sure you need to do much more than breathe and I get hard.”
She was so still and quiet he wouldn’t have known she was there if he couldn’t feel every inch of her.
“You’re…attracted to me?”
Why was there so much disbelief in her voice? “Yes, Xenia. Outrageously.” And with her pressed against him, he couldn’t fight it anymore.
“Why?”
Her quiet confusion made his chest ache. “Because you’re beautiful and strong. And so damn smart and competent it’s scary.” He paused. “Because I know you feel.”
She sucked in a breath. “No.”
“You don’t have to lie to me. I was there in that cell, Xenia.”
“No—”
“You pulled me out of the darkness, gave me the comfort I needed to get back on my feet.” He badly wanted to touch her, stroke her, but he didn’t dare. “I want to be the one to explore those emotions with you, and show you what else you could feel.”
“We can’t do this. I can’t feel. I’m a CenSec.”
“Are you saying Xander’s not a good CenSec?”
“Of course not!”
“I actually think the fact he embraces his emotions now makes him a better CenSec.”
She was quiet. “We need to get out of here. That’s the only thing we should focus on right now.” Her voice had cooled.
She was running away. His jaw clenched. He’d let her. For now. He was an excellent negotiator and he always got what he wanted…by knowing when to wait and when to pounce.
“You have something to cut the net?” he asked.
She nodded, her silky hair sliding across his face. “I have to move, though. It’s in my boot.”
Axton gritted his teeth. “Do it.”
She wriggled against him. As her face slid lower down his chest, he prayed for control. When her face reached his stomach, his muscles contracted. Sweet Creator, this was torture. She paused, then he heard her take a deep breath and move lower.
In all his nighttime fantasies of Xenia’s face against his cock, he hadn’t imagined it might happen while caught in a Rahl booby trap.
She paused again. “Axton?”
Yeah, she could hardly miss his cock swelling to rigid hardness, like the damn thing was reaching for her. “Just ignore it.”
She made a choking noise. Her voice was a near-soundless whisper. “I don’t think I can.” She moved again and her cheek brushed against the front of his trousers.
He groaned.
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.” His voice was hoarse. “In a good way.” He paused. “You’ve had sex, right?” Many cyborgs, those who no longer felt, had given up sex and used scientific means to procreate.
“Once. As part of my CenSec training. They pair us with another CenSec so we can catalogue the experience.”
He knew it was part of the CenSec training. He didn’t agree with it, but Security had deemed it necessary.
“Did you…enjoy it?” Damn, he hated the thought of her with another man.
“It hurt until I blocked the pain.”
She hadn’t enjoyed it. Sex with another virgin cyborg as a training exercise didn’t really inspire pleasure.
“It…it’s not supposed to hurt.” His voice cracked. “Well, maybe a bit the first time. It’s supposed to be pleasurable.”
He felt another movement. Oh Creator, her hand. She stroked down the fastening of his trousers and his cock leaped against the movement.
“It feels so big.”
She was going to kill him. He cleared his throat. “You’d fit me. I’d touch you, lick you and get you so excited that I’d slide right in. You’d feel me, though, and you’d love it.”
Her breath hitched. “If things were different…”
“Xenia, stop thinking that feeling makes you weak or bad at your job. It’s a part of you. I have no doubt it’s helped make you the brilliant CenSec you are.”
She stiffened, turning her face away from him. “I need to get us out of here.”
And the moment was gone.
She reminded him of the coya bird that had lived outside his window as a boy. Whenever he’d tried too hard to convince it to land on his hand, it had flown away. He’d spent the best part of six months wooing it with bits of food before it had finally let him touch it. It had been worth the wait.
Xenia wriggled around a bit more and finally reached her knife. With quick, efficient slices, she cut through the metal rope.
As Axton stood, she handed him something. The ion light. It must have been caught in the net. “Thanks.” Then he caught sight of her knife. “What is that?”
She held up the wicked blade that was glowing blue-white. “A Tashian scorch blade. I…collect knives.”
Of course she did. He shook his head and swung the light around. Bare, silver walls greeted them.
She tucked her knife away and started running her hands over every inch of their prison. “I’ve run a scan and carbon dioxide isn’t building up to unsafe levels, so fresh air must be getting in somewhere.”
He watched her for a second, caught by the way the light glinted off the red in her hair. It was probably wrong of him to enjoy listening to her spout information at him in that cool, crisp tone.