Breathing Vapor

by Cynthia Sax

  Mira didn’t look down, aware that the sponginess under her boots wasn’t the hard ground. Her eyes and nostrils stung, the air heavy with smoke and gunfire residue.

  She concentrated on following Strive, on moving as quickly as she could, cognizant that she didn’t have a cyborg’s speed or muscle. She was slowing them down, putting her warriors at risk—endangering the male she loved and his friend.

  Sweat trickled down her spine. Her arms and legs burned, her muscles straining. They zigzagged through the maze of pathways and structures. The fighting lessened with every step they took away from the domicile, but the danger never went away.

  Every turn, every darkened alley could hold a warrior—either an insurgent or a Humanoid Alliance warrior. Mira wheezed, her lungs expanding until almost bursting, each gulp of air clawing its way down her throat.

  The roar of an engine increased in volume. A ship zipped by them, the machine-made wind parting her hair. A projectile arced, accelerating as it trailed it. The ship exploded, the fireball lighting the shadows.

  Distracted, Mira tripped over a chunk of stone and stumbled. Vapor caught her by the elbow, righted her once more. “Hold it together, female.” He flattened one of his gun-filled palms against the small of her back and pushed her forward.

  She had to hold it together. For him. For his friend. Her mouth dried. She didn’t have enough saliva to swallow with. Her hamstrings, calves, shit, her entire body ached. She concentrated on putting one foot ahead of the other, forcing herself to move.

  Her pace slowed and slowed until she was shuffling, her feet feeling like they were encased in rock. “Can’t,” she huffed. She stopped, bent over, grasped her thighs, gasping for air, having nothing left. “Go on. Without me.”

  “Never.” Vapor scooped her up, pressing her face into his body armor-clad chest, his guns remaining in his hands, an extension of her cyborg. “Hold on to me.”

  She wrapped her quivering arms and legs around him. “I’m heavy. I’ll slow you down.”

  “You weigh almost nothing, human.” He released her, twisted his torso to the right, shot an armed brown-and-green male, the insurgent lurking in an alcove.

  “You can’t fight, run, and carry me, not if you want to survive.” She couldn’t bear the thought of him dead. “Leave me.”

  “If I leave you, that’s all I’ll be doing—surviving.” Vapor ran at speeds beyond her capability. He didn’t even breathe heavily. “Without you, without your sweet lies, your constant rebellion, your processor-melting smile, your softness, I’ll spend my lifespan merely existing. I’ll kill and not live, fight and not care about the results. Is that the future you want for me?”

  “I want you to be happy,” Mira mumbled, touched by his words.

  “I want happiness for myself also, would do anything to obtain it.” He turned quickly to the left. She slipped, gripped him tighter. “I’m not selfless like you are, female. Another male could give you offspring, acceptance in human society, all of the things you desire. But I want you for myself and I’m taking you.”

  He wanted her. Heat spread across her chest. Vapor moved with her, shot warriors lurking in structures, ran.

  She clung to him, her male, her protector. “I don’t need offspring, acceptance in human society, or anything else.”

  He snorted. “That’s a lie.”

  It wasn’t a lie. She’d spoken the truth. “I might desire them but I don’t need them,” Mira explained. “All I need is you.” She pressed her lips to his neck, tasting the salt and minerals on his skin. “I love you, Vapor.”

  He skidded to a stop, the abrupt cessation of movement jostling her body. “Repeat that.” Vapor looked down at her, his eyes dark, his gaze intense.

  “You heard correctly, cyborg, but I will repeat it.” She curved her palm over his cheek. “I love you. My heart is yours.”

  “I want more than your heart.” He pressed his face against her hand. “I want all of you.”

  “You have it. I—”

  Vapor ducked, covering her body with his. A projectile whizzed by, slammed into the structure in front of them. “We’ll talk about this later.” He sprinted forward.

  They were in the middle of a battlefield. Mira swallowed her words, not wishing to distract him. This wasn’t the time or the place for confessions.

  She was glad he knew. If anything happened…

  She swallowed hard. Nothing would happen to him. He was a cyborg, the best warrior her father had ever created.

  Would her sole remaining parent miss her? Would the famed Designer notice she was gone? He’d no longer have anyone interrupting his work. He could devote himself fully to his legacy, to designing fighting machines the Humanoid Alliance could use to suppress other beings.

  They wouldn’t use her cyborg that way. She rested her cheek against Vapor’s body armor. Soon, he’d be free, able to follow his own commands.

  They stopped outside the District’s main docking bay. It remained standing, whole, a rarity in the war torn settlement.

  Vapor knelt with Mira behind an empty fuel container. Strive flattened his form against a structure to their right.

  Heavily armed guards were stationed outside the docking bay. They were organized into two groups. One group encircled the structure itself. Judging by their faces, bearing, and weapons, they were seasoned senior staff. A larger group, consisting of fresh-faced fidgety young guards, formed a human wall around the perimeter.

  Bodies were scattered before this second barrier. The insurgents must have tried to take the docking bay and failed.

  “Are we shooting our way through?” she whispered.

  “A security breach like that would prompt all of the ships to immediately depart,” Vapor murmured against her ear. “We’d be stranded on the planet.” His lips teased her skin, sending tremors of delight down her spine.

  “Can we sneak inside?”

  He shook his head. “Every entrance is secured.”

  “If you and Strive were alone, you could do it.” They were cyborgs, fast, strong, able to breach any structure.

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  It made no sense to argue with him. She wouldn’t leave him either.

  She was the reason they were trapped outside the docking bay. Mira tilted her head. She had caused this problem. She’d solve it. “Then we do what I do best.”

  “Which is?” Vapor lifted his eyebrows.

  “We lie.” She stood.

  Guards turned, aiming their guns at her. Vapor rumbled with unhappiness. Strive hissed, equally concerned.

  “Holster your weapons,” Mira advised. “And let me do the talking.” She could do this. She walked forward, her head held high, her heart drumming against her chest, extra swagger in her stride.

  Vapor grumbled words she couldn’t hear and followed her. Strive did the same.

  The guards in the outer ring stared at her, maintaining the circle. Their aims didn’t falter. One press of a trigger, any trigger, and she’d be dead.

  They didn’t shoot her but they also didn’t lower their guns.

  Mira stopped in front of the guards. “I’m Mira Breazeal, the Designer’s daughter. Clearly I’m human and not a threat.” She curled her top lip, giving them her best look of disdain. “These are two of my father’s most advanced cyborgs.” She nodded at Vapor and Strive. Only loyal members of Humanoid Alliance would have access to cyborgs. They were better than pieces of identification. “I have business inside the docking bay.”

  The guards looked at her, at the cyborgs, then at each other. They shrugged and stepped aside to let them through.

  One barrier breached. One more to go.

  Mira walked up to the second line of defense.

  “Ma’am, you shouldn’t be here.” One of the males stepped toward her. His uniform told her he was higher up in the ranking, would likely be more experienced, perhaps more intelligent. He’d require more convincing than the previous guards. “This is a secure area.”


  “It had better be.” She gazed at him as though he was a rodent. “There’s a transport ship with four hundred and ninety-two cyborg warriors in your bay. We don’t want those falling into the wrong hands.”

  “She’s right,” another guard confirmed. “I saw them being loaded.”

  “Of course, I’m right.” Mira snapped. “We don’t have time for small talk. I didn’t navigate through a war zone, losing my ship and destroying my garment in the process.” She plucked at the formerly white fabric. “To shoot the shit with you. There were supposed to be four hundred and ninety-four cyborgs loaded. These two required upgrades.” She indicated Vapor and Strive. “I’m delivering them.”

  The guard extended his hand. One of his buddies passed him a private viewscreen. “Do you have clearance?”

  “I have two cyborgs.” She rolled her eyes. “Do I require clearance?”

  “What is your name, ma’am?” The guard was determined to be a pain in the ass.

  “Mira Breazeal.”

  “The Designer’s daughter?” The color drained from the male’s face.

  “Who else would transport his cyborgs?”

  “A group of thirty-one humanoids are approaching,” Vapor relayed, his voice robotic. “They are heavily armed with missiles, long guns, guns, daggers--”

  “Yes, yes, we are under attack. We get the picture,” she stopped him.

  “Go.” The guard waved them through. “Prepare for battle,” he yelled to his buddies.

  Mira took four steps.

  Vapor pulled her behind a loader. “You’re reckless, female.” He clasped her to him, burrowing his face into her hair.

  “It worked, didn’t it?” she mumbled.

  “It did work.” He lifted her upward, draped her over his shoulder, and moved from shadow to shadow.

  “I can walk.”

  “Noisily.”

  She made a face but didn’t say anything. Compared to a cyborg’s tread, any human’s stride was loud.

  Vapor carried her, padding swiftly and silently toward a large ship. Strive grinned behind them, guns in his hands.

  A boom split the silence. The structure vibrated.

  Humans burst into action around the ship, rolling machinery away, removing hoses. Distracted, the crew didn’t notice that they gained three more passengers.

  Vapor ran up the ramp and along the hallway, transporting her directly to a large storage chamber. The other cyborgs must have explored the ship.

  “Secure the door,” he instructed his friend.

  Strive accessed the control panel. Vapor continued to hold her.

  “Are we in danger?” she asked him, peering around them. Containers of nutrition bars, cleaning cloths and other supplies were stacked to the ceiling. It wasn’t luxury accommodations but it would be safe. She was accompanied by two big cyborg warriors and there were plenty of places in the chamber to hide.

  “There’s always a possibility of danger.” Vapor transferred her from one hand to the other as he holstered his guns. “But the risk is manageable now.”

  “Then you can put me down.”

  “I’m not ready to release you, not yet.” Vapor nuzzled her neck. “You love me.” Her big cyborg trembled. “You didn’t lie about that. It’s the truth.”

  It mattered to him—that she loved him. Her insides turned to mush.

  “It’s the truth.” She stroked his nape, savoring the contrast of his soft skin over his hard metal frame. “I love you, Vapor. I will always love you.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mira loved him.

  Vapor continued to cycle that revelation through his processors.

  She loved him. He snapped the cleaning cloth he’d freed from a container and carefully wiped the grime off his female’s back.

  Before he met her, he’d had no experience with the emotion. Everything Vapor had learned about love, Mira had taught him, through her recollections, her actions, her words.

  Love was kneeling beside a parent, not giving up on her even though she was long dead. Love was taking on a mission that a beloved being could no longer complete. Love was risking your life to try to protect another being’s offspring.

  Mira would die for the beings she cared for, would trade her safety for theirs without hesitation, would put their happiness first, sacrifice everything for them.

  That’s how she felt about him, a cyborg warrior, a male other humans viewed as a machine, a weapon to be utilized.

  He’d ensure she never regretted loving him. Vapor would keep her safe, care for her as she cared for him. He curled the cloth around a strand of her hair, cleaning it.

  The ship had taken off and had exited Humanoid Alliance heavily regulated airspace. None of the crew suspected they had additional passengers. They weren’t aware that the cyborgs had removed their tracking devices and had freed themselves from their flimsy restraints.

  It’s time, Ace announced through their private transmission lines. We have to live on this ship for many planet rotations. Keep the killing neat.

  Only you’d say that, Thrasher muttered.

  Dispose of the bodies and your tracking devices through the chutes. Ace ignored him.

  Have fun. Thrasher wouldn’t be silenced.

  The cyborgs cheered. They were designed for killing and it brought them tremendous satisfaction to undertake what they had been manufactured to do.

  Death made his little human anxious. Vapor gazed at Mira’s raised shoulders. Tension oozed from her form.

  “Are you coming?” Strive nudged Vapor’s left arm. His eyes glowed with anticipation.

  Ten planet rotations ago, Vapor would have been as excited as Strive was to kill the human crew. Now, he preferred to comfort his female, to keep her safe. His gaze dropped to her plump ass. To breed with her.

  “I’m staying.” Vapor slid his hands inside his battle armor, removed his taped-on tracking devices, passed them to his friend. “Get rid of these for me.”

  “Consider it done.” The cyborg grinned and jogged out the door.

  Mira tossed her cleaning cloth to the side and turned to face him. “Go with your friend. I’ll wait here.”

  A man shrieked, the sound coming from outside the door. “They’re—”

  She placed her index finger on Vapor’s lips. “I know what they’re doing. I also know you’d enjoy it. You’re a cyborg. Killing is part of who you are.”

  He nipped at her finger. Mira pulled her hand away from him, her cheeks flushing, the scent of her arousal increasing. She wanted him and he wanted her.

  “This is part of who I am also.” Vapor slanted his lips over hers. She sighed, parting for him, and he plunged inside, tasting her concern, her love.

  He cupped her head, holding her still, as he ravished her mouth. He surged forward. She retreated. He feinted right. Not falling for his tricks, she struck left, playfully stabbing her tongue into his.

  Vapor chuckled against her lips. Life with his female would be filled with constant challenge. He’d have to pay attention, continue to improve his skills, be the best. He twined his tongue along hers, stroking, caressing her flesh.

  She wiggled, plucking at his body armor. Without breaking their kiss, he stripped, discarding this barrier. Her hands met his bare chest and his muscles twitched, bliss flowing from her touch, along his arms, legs, cock.

  He was hard, had been that way since entering the chamber. Her musk tantalized him. Vapor nibbled down her neck, breathing her in.

  He progressed lower, licking the swell of her breasts, diving into the enticing hollow between them. Mira’s fingers slid over his shoulders, down his back. Vapor shuddered, the thrill of her fingertips on his skin stripping his control strand by strand, making his processors stutter to a stop.

  Though the transmission lines, he heard cyborgs shout with triumph as they secured the ship, redirecting it toward the Homeland.

  “We’re free, female.” Vapor smiled against Mira’s fabric-covered breasts. “There’s no more n
eed for you to lie, to hide your true self from others. All you need to be is mine.” He bared his teeth.

  “Vapor.” She stiffened.

  He grasped the bodice of her garment with his mouth and yanked downward. Fabric tore. Vapor repeated the motion, shredding the white cloth, removing that symbol of the Humanoid Alliance, and then rested his cheek against her curved stomach.

  “I’m yours.” She ran her fingers over his hair. “And you now answer to no one. You only have to obey the commands you believe in, kill the beings you think need to be killed, fight the battles you care about.”

  “You’re all that I care about.” He lived for her. His little human’s body was bare except for the boots on her feet, her skin pale, her nipples pink, the blonde curls between her legs damp. He smelled her arousal and that intensified his desire for her.

  Mira held him. Vapor pressed his face against her lush form. They stayed like that for several heartbeats, delaying the breeding that would come, savoring each other, the love they’d found.

  Because it was love. He mouthed over her curves. For him, as well as for her. “I’ll give you everything you need, female.”

  “I’ll take everything I need, cyborg.” She tugged at his hair. He allowed her to draw his head back. “And what I need right now is your cock in my pussy.”

  Vapor would follow that order.

  Because he wanted to, not because he had to.

  He stood slowly, rubbing his chest along her body, ensuring she felt the power in his form. “I’ll give you my cock.” He lifted her high against a clear expanse of wall.

  “I’ll take your cock.” She lifted her chin. His little human’s feet dangled above the floor, yet she continued to push him.

  Her defiance was so fraggin’ sexy. “How do you plan to take my cock?” He leaned his forehead against hers.

  “Like this.” Mira wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled him forward. A newly manufactured unit had more physical strength than she did.

  Vapor didn’t move for one moment, relaying the message that he was in control.

  Mira refused to receive that communiqué. She kicked his ass with the heels of her boots.

  “You push me, female.” He filled the space between her thighs, pressing his shaft against her wet pussy lips. “I’m free, as you pointed out. You’re not my master any longer.”