by Milana Jacks
The cyborg shook his head. “It was her decision, her path. I merely gave her a push and now intend to take tactical advantage.”
Before I had time to think about it, I swung. My right hook connected with his face. The cyborg flew back, hit the apartment building, and bounced off the wall. I marched after him and picked him up by his throat. His wide eyes locked with mine. The metal under my fingers squeaked. “Awfully strong for a human,” he said.
The metal on his neck bent, and his body started beeping.
“Craig!” Rose said, and I dropped the cyborg.
The colonel clutched his throat and laughed like a lunatic. Rose pressed her arm to her mouth and called the med unit. The next thing I knew, she was begging the fucker not to have me arrested and turned into a level five.
8
Rose
Dad climbed into the med pod, his gaze lingering on Arthur, who stood there, seething, his fists clenching and relaxing at his sides. When he draped an arm over my shoulder, I shrugged it off. Dad smirked and left with a dangerous glint in his eye. I nodded at him, telling him without words I was in on his plan. Before Arthur had come, Dad asked me to draw out the yellow dragon and promised he’d give me better protection next time. I played a dangerous game, but I couldn’t refuse my dad. He’d suspect something. I’d always been up for any challenge. Refusing to draw out the dragon might even make him pull me out of military school and marry me off to whomever he chose. Arranged marriage was a standard practice in the habitat.
I was not marrying anyone. Ever.
I waved Dad off and walked back inside my apartment, expecting Arthur to head on home. But no, he followed me back, and as I tried to manually slide the door in his face, he walked inside. Arthur rounded the door and stood in my way. He was tall with wide shoulders, and I tried to squeeze past him, but he stopped me with a hand over my hip. I grunted. My hip was bruised. The only reason I wasn’t dead today was because I saw him before he smashed the pod, and I tucked my body under the dented dashboard. When he slammed his foot down, it caught the back half of the pod.
Arthur didn’t remove his hand. He spread his fingers over my hip and held me against the door. The heat of his palm on my bare skin made me acutely aware of our proximity, and while I should’ve asked him to move, I couldn’t make myself do anything. He watched me with remorse in his eyes, and I did nothing when his body moved closer.
“I’m sorry about today,” he said.
“You didn’t see me, so that’s that.”
He nodded. “My beast should’ve known. I don’t know why he didn’t sense you.” There was something in his gaze, something I didn’t recognize. Arthur lowered his head. I breathed in the scent uniquely his. My eyes wanted to shut, but I kept them open. Arthur pulled back. I couldn’t move. Even if the hand on my hip didn’t stop me, I couldn’t move. My heart thudded in my ears, and I licked my lips. He stepped closer, his erections pressed against my pelvis. He dipped his head again, and I tilted my face. His lips hovered above mine, and his eyes brightened slightly, then dimmed. “What do I do about you, Rose?” he whispered.
I couldn’t talk. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to jump him, but I wouldn’t, because if he couldn’t make himself kiss me, I wouldn’t do it either. My marriage proposal from the past, sadly, still stood. All he had to do was make the first move. But Arthur wouldn’t. His dragon brotherhood dictated his decisions, and I was a cyborg. My own brother might not want anything to do with me. I couldn’t expect Arthur to want me either.
“I can’t do this,” I said. “Whatever this is.” I dropped my head, and my forehead touched his lips. He placed a chaste kiss on it as he always had. For us, this was normal. What the hell was I thinking? He was probably aroused by violence. Punching my dad got his rocks off.
Arthur rubbed my cheek with his and moved his hand from my hip to press against the small of my back. He kissed my cheek next, moved down my neck, and he kissed there too. My panties became drenched, my stomach tied itself in knots, and I shifted from one leg to the other as Arthur’s lips moved down my body. He dropped to his knees and lifted my shirt. I tensed, knowing my body looked as if a herd of horses had run over it.
Arthur pressed his lips to my belly, and I gasped. This was definitely not normal for us. I tucked my mechatronic hand behind my back, which pushed my body forward. My pelvis nudged his jaw, and he hooked his fingers under my tights, then pulled them down, leaving me in my unicorn panties. In disbelief, I watched his face move closer until he kissed my mound. Oh my God, he was gonna do this. I blinked as he lowered my panties.
He leaned back and looked up. “Take off your shirt.”
“I’m not wearing a bra.” Really, Rose?
“I know.”
Suddenly, I grew self-conscious of…everything. Did I want to go there with Arthur? What if it wasn’t as good as I’d hyped it up to be? What if he was doing this because he felt sorry for crushing me with his dragon foot?
“I see,” he said.
He tapped his fingers on my thigh, and the moment he leaned back, I knew he’d walk away. I hooked my hands under my shirt and dragged it over my head. Arthur stared at my breasts. In turn, they felt heavier, my nipples hardened, and my chest heaved. He cupped my left breast, weighed it in his hand. His palm teased my nipple, and I whimpered.
Arthur lifted my foot and removed my tights and panties. Then he hooked an arm under my knee and slung my leg over his shoulder. He placed my hand on his other shoulder. I braced for his mouth. He didn’t kiss me there, but stuck out his tongue and swiped it over my wet entrance. I threw my head back. “Oh my God.”
“Oh Rose, you’re so wet.” His fingers rubbed my entrance, slowly, making circles, poking inside a little, spreading moisture over my clit, then back inside, and I grew so wet that my pussy made sloppy noises. But I didn’t care as he swiped my clit with his tongue and sucked it inside his mouth as two fingers slowly filled my pussy.
Arthur’s other hand kneaded my breast, then he slapped it.
I jerked, my pussy quivering instantly.
Eyes locked with mine, Arthur smiled and spread the fingers inside my pussy.
I pushed my pelvis forward and wiggled over his mouth.
He slapped my breast again.
I winced, and my pussy squeezed his fingers. Oh my. While flicking my clit, he took my nipple between his fingertips and rolled. My eyes fluttered closed, and I rested the back of my head against the door. I couldn’t get my pussy closer to his mouth. I wriggled like a mindless wanton. Arthur was flicking my clit with his tongue, pumping his fingers into me, rolling my nipple, and I was panting louder and louder.
It took all of two minutes, less than it took me to get myself off. My orgasm built and built and I gripped his hair, closed my eyes, and let go. I shattered, coming so hard, my knees didn’t hold me. Arthur caught me and lowered me to sit with my back against the door. Arthur’s eyes were pools of green, and they seemed brighter now. I could get lost just watching him. He rested his palms on the floor and leaned to kiss the corner of my mouth.
I cupped his face because now I could touch him the way lovers did. We’d entered another stage of our relationship, the one where I was a woman and he was a man. “It was better than I thought it would be.”
Arthur chuckled. “I’ve only just gotten started.”
“I bet.”
He stood and offered me a hand. “Your pizza’s getting cold.”
Arthur
The taste of Rose’s pussy in my mouth made the pizza taste good, almost as great as the ones I used to buy from Uncle Ron’s around the corner from my apartment in New York back before the Ice Age. Knight and I’d eaten there every other day and always in the wee hours of the night after a job we’d finished for our mob boss.
Rose sat on the counter and winced, then started to put on her clothes.
“You never got over the unicorns,” I said and pointed at her underwear.
She smiled. “Guess not.”
&nbs
p; We shared pizza and silence. Rose made me eat the last slice. The silence between us bothered me, but at the same time, I was unsure what to say. I’d eaten her pussy and had no intention of stopping what I’d started. My dicks were hard, and thinking about her sleek entrance made my blood boil. I wanted to fuck her. Bad. But I wouldn’t tonight. I couldn’t be sure if Rose was still a virgin, but I’d stake a wing on a bet she was. I’d like to think she’d been saving herself for me. Because I sure as hell spent time with my hand, waiting for her.
Rose wiped her mouth with a napkin and hopped off the counter. In the living room, she sat on the couch. “How’s my brother?” She tucked her cyborg hand behind her back again. I wondered if there was something wrong with the implant. I followed her and sat down, draping an arm over the back of the couch. She scooted closer, and I smelled her shampoo. I was in fucking heaven as I played with her long braid. “He’s good. I think. I haven’t been in touch with him.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. “I though he sent you here to check in on me.”
“Nah. He didn’t send me,” I said. “I’m here because I want to be here.”
Rose blushed, a rare thing for her, and I chuckled, then kissed her neck. She smelled so good.
“Are you going to tell him? About us, I mean.” She scrunched up her nose. “Not that there is an us. Gah, never mind.” She exhaled.
“Maybe.”
She glanced at me and scooted away. “I wish he’d find a girlfriend to keep him busy and minding his own business.”
“Knight is mated.” As soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew it was the wrong thing to say.
Rose’s eyes widened, and she turned to face me. “Mated?”
“Engaged,” I corrected, but it was too late.
Rose clung to my words as if she’d read them in the Bible. “You said mated.”
“I meant engaged.”
“No, no, you said mated. I presume it’s a dragon thing. No?” I leaned in to kiss her, but she put a hand on my chest. “Knight is mated to whom?”
“Her name is Clementine. She’s nice, and I think you’ll like her.”
“Oh my God, Arthur, why haven’t you said anything before? I want to meet her.” She smiled. “A girl for my broody boring brother. Who would have thought he’d ever…mate.” She pursed her lips. “Mated. I like the sound of that word. It’s like a promise of eternal love, you know?” Rose was a romantic. She continued, “They say a huge storm came upon the habitat, even crashed the Cy ship. It had something to do with Knight, didn’t it?”
“Mm-hm. He came into his power.”
Rose slapped my chest. “That’s kind of big news. Wait. You haven’t told me because you think I’d tell my dad?”
I shook my head. “No. I trust you. It never came up.”
Rose looked away and chewed her lip. I could practically see the wheels in her brain turning. “The LA habitat reports say the sea rose impossibly high and flooded the habitat. The New Orleans habitat burned. In Pittsburg, a hurricane formed over ground, not water. Tornados lifted as if someone could move them. Science can’t explain any of it. Believe me, the Cy have tried.”
I watched her as she thought about those things. Rose was brilliant. If any cyborg could figure out what was going on, it was gonna be Rose. I was proud of her and terrified she’d betray me at the same time. But, fuck, I was willing to risk betrayal if it meant spending time with her.
“You’re next to do something extraordinary. Something…unnatural.” She glanced at me.
“That’s right.”
“What?”
“Plant flowers.”
She burst out in laughter. “Seriously.”
“I’m an earth elemental.” I had sent my then bird Clementine to put flowers on your window. That bird is now your sister-in-law.
“Huh. That’s very cool. What else can you do?”
“Grow coffee from a bean.”
“Oh, come on.”
“I’m serious. That’s all I can do.”
“That can’t be all.”
“It’s not, but it’s all I’m capable of until I grow into my power.” Done with this conversation, I kissed her neck.
“Okay. When will you grow into your power?”
When Rose latched on to something, she wouldn’t let go. “I don’t know,” I lied.
“Is it up to Mother Nature?”
“Yes.” Sort of. Rose knew most things about us, way more than any other cyborg, but since Knight hadn’t come into power until recently, we’d never mentioned the elements. Ten years of a power being dormant would make anyone stop believing in it.
“She visited me,” Rose said.
I lifted my head from her neck. “Who visited you?”
“Mother Nature.”
I sat up straight. “When?”
“Before I underwent my surgery.”
At Knight’s house, feverish and sick as hell, Rose had spoken nonsense about a dragon who destroyed the world and had indeed mentioned Mother Nature. But as her condition had gotten worse, she ceased talking.
“Tell me what Mother Nature said.”
“She said spirits can’t take implants. She must remove my spirit so that I may take an implant and live. Then, she put a hand on my chest, and I felt…lighter.” She pointed at her chest. “Here. Inside. I woke up thinking my implant would get rejected again, but here I am. Do you know what she was talking about?”
“Rose.” I swallowed. “Are you sure it was Mother Nature that came to you?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“How can you be sure?” My voice pitched higher. My chest hurt.
“She introduced herself.”
Disbelieving my ears, I blinked. Mother Nature had ripped the spirit away from Rose. My dragon, whom I’d kept close to my thoughts ever since I learned he was the one who had destroyed the planet, had gone in slumber right around the time Rose came out of surgery. He didn’t recognize Rose because the spirit had been removed from her. The dragon spirits, Clementine and Amy, had rejected their implants, and Rose’s test implant attempt had failed. The second one had passed, and she was taken into surgery immediately. It had passed because she was no longer a spirit.
I cupped my face in my hands and rested my elbows on my knees. “Fuck,” I whispered. “I shouldn’t have touched you.”
The couch’s fake leather squealed as Rose got up and marched to the door. “Get out.”
“Baby, I didn’t mean it that way.” I stood.
“Get out!”
9
Rose
Yesterday, the good doctor had come by and given me pain meds. Seeing as I looked like a slobbering mess after Arthur had left, the doctor injected me with sleep meds too. I slept like a log only to wake up this morning groggy with a million messages waiting on the com screen. I ignored them all and watched mindless television about conservation. Since the TV shows couldn’t occupy my mind, I thought about Arthur some more.
If Knight was mated, Arthur would be mated. From the way Arthur panicked when I mentioned Mother Nature, the spirit thing Mother Nature removed so that I would live was important news for him. One minute, he wanted me, the next, he’d said he shouldn’t have touched me. I didn’t know what to make of it other than that he could go and fuck himself. So I threw him out. For all I cared, he could stay out. Mm-hm.
The topic of cloning had come up at primetime. Dad had been busy. He’d already set up advertising campaigns and multiple Cy meetings, riling up the community about the idea. It was a scary development, and although on the broadcast some cyborg protested loudly, I believed, in the end, Dad would get his way. He always got his way.
At night, I checked the messages, sad to realize none came from Arthur. Not that I expected him to reach out after I’d thrown him out, but still, my pity party had been warranted. Dr. Hayes came by again and cleared me for light morning exercise, so I went ahead and attended my morning classes, then caught up with the Elites in the early afternoon.
&
nbsp; I found the Elite team in the classroom. More than half of the unit had died the other day, but the classroom seemed full. Dad must’ve recruited new cyborgs, the ones from his backup list. Quietly, I tiptoed along the wall and sat behind an empty table in the back.
My father sported a shiner from when Arthur had knocked him out. The purple bruise didn’t look pretty. Dad acknowledged me with a slight nod and continued preaching precision, focus, and discipline. I’d heard the speech a thousand times at home, but stared at him so it would look like I paid attention. In reality, I couldn’t focus. Even my morning meditation went to shit. I was utterly unproductive because I lived in my own pitiful world where Arthur would have to mate someone else because he “shouldn’t have touched me.” God, I wanted to hate him, all of him. Especially his talented fingers and mouth. I hated those things already. Mm-hm.
“…dragon,” Dad said, then sat on the table, his mechatronic legs dangling. “Volunteers?”
A few hands went up, and so I extended mine. What about the dragon? Well shit, I wished I’d listened.
Dad ignored me. “The dragon is a man. He could be anywhere, and he could be anyone. The only way we can find him is not by waiting for him to attack us, but by going on the offense.” Dad locked eyes with me, shook his head, then began calling names. I stood, keeping my hand up while trying to rewind what he’d said. Did my cyborg chip come with a recorder? Nah. Why not? Something to request as an upgrade for certain.
I believed Dad planned an offense. I should be there. I might be—kind of—hating on Arthur, but I didn’t want to see him harmed. In order to warn him, I needed to be in the know. Oh God. I was gonna go against my dad, against the entire cyborg military, against my own people. Like a mole. Doubt and fear crept in, and my hand dropped.
“We don’t know where or who he is,” Jordan said. “And we can’t go after him.”
“Why not?” my dad asked.
“The Cy don’t support military action outside habitats. They’ve made that clear when we returned the implants from the dead. It’s going against their wishes.”