Phoebe stared at him. Somehow, it hadn't hit her before that the Fighters had to give up sex to stay unbound. “Not even a kiss?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Not even a kiss. No touching, but I can flirt with women all I want. It's fun.” He winked.
Phoebe's anger subsided. “You must be lonely.”
That wiped the grin off his face and his eyes darkened. He took a step closer to her. “I am not lonely.”
“Yes, you are. That is why you are flirting with women and that is why you are such an arrogant prick. I see right through you, Silver, and I believe the things Shade and Wind told you at MedAct. You wish you were bounded again because you don't want to be alone, but you are afraid to bind yourself to a woman again because you fear that you will lose her too.”
He growled. “You know nothing about me.”
“Your defensive mode tells me otherwise.”
He grabbed her, making Phoebe gasp. He looked pissed. She realized that making him angry was not the smartest thing to do, but thousands of emotions lingered inside of her. It was everything from despair to confusion. She wanted to get away from here. She wanted to get to Shade and make sure he never came this way. Whatever the Fighters wanted with him couldn't be good.
“Let her go!” a deep voice boomed from the door.
She and Silver turned around, staring right into the eyes of a furious Nightmare.
Before she got the chance to react, the huge and intimidating cyborg lunged. He grabbed Silver by the throat and threw him against the wall. The whole room shook from the impact, making it almost feel like a small earthquake. Silver grimaced and groaned with pain.
Phoebe stared at the scene taking place in front of her with huge eyes. She backed away so as not to get in between them. The crazed look in Nightmare's eyes as he pressed his fingers tighter around Silver's throat told her that he meant business. He would snap Silver's neck if he wanted to.
“I told you not to touch her,” Nightmare growled at Silver.
“I wasn't going to hurt her.” Silver struggled to get free, but Nightmare was too strong for him.
“I don't give a shit what you think you were not doing. I told you to stay away from her, but you didn't listen. She is not one of your toys to play around with. She has a bound one. You will respect that. Now, get out!”
He pushed Silver out from the room and slammed the door behind him. Phoebe pressed herself against the wall as Nightmare turned toward her with a glare that would kill if it could. He flashed his teeth and gave out an animalistic snarl. There didn't seem to be much sanity left in him. She could be bitchy with Silver, but with this cyborg, that would be an awful idea. He was fierce, deadly, and definitely dangerous like no other. He was also the first of the Fighters, meaning he had had plenty of time to lose his mind. He had been without a bound one for about forty years, and after watching his actions in the media, she knew he had little regret. He killed without remorse and robbed places without a second thought. She knew he could kill her in the blink of an eye.
Without a word, he came at her, approaching her quickly. Phoebe couldn't help the squeak that escaped her lips when he invaded her personal space and locked her in between his arms as he placed his palms against the wall on each side of her head. She barely reached to his shoulders and he seemed twice as wide as her. He could break her neck without much effort.
She expected him to threaten her with all kinds of awful things. But to her surprise, he did the last thing she expected him to do. She watched his facial expression relax as he exhaled and leaned his head against the crook of her neck. His heavy body pressed against hers as he cuddled himself against her. His body heat surrounded her and his appealing and masculine scent filled her nose. She was unable to move, but it felt like her heart would explode out of her chest. What the heck was he doing?
“Just a little while,” he mumbled against her throat. “Please ... let me stay like this for a little while.”
His words stunned her. “What?”
She felt him press his lips and nose against her neck as if he was breathing her in. He didn't kiss her but his lips brushed her skin, sending goosebumps all over her body. And when he pressed his big, muscular body even closer, Phoebe was ready to fight for her life, but she remained still. Nightmare didn't move. He just remained like that, snuggled up against her. He didn't say anything either. He was silent for several minutes. All she could hear was his silent breathing.
“Don't be afraid, Phoebe. I will not hurt you. I just need to feel ...” His words were a whisper, but he didn't finish his sentence.
“Nearness to someone?” she suggested with a gulp.
He nodded against her neck. “Yes. I need it so much. You have no idea what it's like to be alone for so long. My programming tells me to find a woman to bind myself to. It screams inside of me like crazy every single day, driving me mad.”
“Silver said you can't touch a woman without binding yourself to her.” Fear gripped her. The last thing she wanted was this dark and intimidating cyborg bound to her.
“That is true. Intimacy will tell my programming that I want a bond with her, but I can't bind myself to a woman who already belongs to another cyborg. My programming recognizes that you are not available and will not initiate the bonding process. You are safe ... and so am I.”
Confusion struck her. “You are safe?”
“Yes. You can give me this moment of intimacy without me risking binding myself to you. Don't worry. I will not touch you in an inappropriate way. I just ... want to stay like this for a little while.”
He went silent again, and Phoebe had no other choice but to let him lean against her. She heard his steady breathing and felt the heat from his skin against hers as the minutes passed by. He seemed to be relaxing, but she remained tense. She worried that he would suddenly switch back to the dangerous cyborg she had seen when he had entered the room.
“You told Silver not to touch me, to respect that I have a bound one, and yet, you are touching me yourself.”
“I'm respecting you,” he answered. “Silver would have toyed with you. That is what he does to get his fill of nearness.”
“And you turn to women with bound ones.”
“No, I rarely get the chance because most of them live in Glaswell. They are out of my reach. The women I encounter don't belong to a cyborg. They belong to a human male and human males don't count. My programming approves those women as potential bound ones. It tells me they are accessible.”
Phoebe couldn't help but feel pity for the cyborg. He wasn't crazy. He was lonely. Desperately.
“Why do you fight a bond so much?” she asked.
“Because it's not real.”
Phoebe swallowed. “What Shade and I have is real.”
“Yes, for you it's real. I don't doubt that, but Shade never had any say in it. From the moment he woke up, his programming told him he was bound to you, that he loved you and why would he question it? You make him happy, and that is all that matters. But once you lose your bound one, you realize how fake your life has been. MedAct makes you believe they bound you for your own survival's sake and that cyborgs can't exist without the bond.” He raised his head and looked her deep in the eyes. “I say they plant it inside us to control us. We will function just fine without it from the moment we wake up.”
Phoebe's chin trembled. His shining eyes with the black pupils were mesmerizing and frightening at the same time. “But most of you die when the bond is broken.”
“Yes, MedAct made sure of that too.”
Maybe she had been wrong about him. Maybe he was crazy after all.
“Do you have any proof of what you are saying?”
“Just my own past and every cyborg that stands with me. They experience the same.”
“That is not enough. No one will listen to you.”
“Not yet, but we will get there one day.”
Confusion struck her once again. “So what do you need Shade for?”
�
��He is a newborn cyborg. We hope he will be able to help us solve the biggest riddle of them all.”
“And that is?”
Nightmare remained silent for a while, just looking at her, never moving away from her. His need for nearness was great.
“How to free a cyborg from his bound one without killing him.”
CHAPTER 19
“I'm going!” Faye yelled at Wind. “Phoebe is my friend. There is no chance in hell I'm staying here to sit around and wait for you and Shade to come back.”
Shade saw irritation in Wind's eyes, but he remained calm. “We have already discussed this, Faye. You can't go,” Wind said. “You will only be in the way. Besides, what can you do to help? The Fighters are huge and mean cyborgs. To them, you are an easy prey.”
Faye glared at Wind with her hands on her hips. “I don't give a damn what you think. It's not your call.”
“Yes, it is. Only Shade and I are going. We are the ones who have a chance against the Fighters. They took Phoebe for a reason, and that reason is to get Shade to come to them, meaning, it will be dangerous. Too dangerous for a human girl. You don't have the strength to fight off a Fighter.”
Shade and Wind were ready to leave. They stood packed and ready in the hallway to his and Phoebe's house together with Faye, Celise, and Diane. They had the location of Nightmare and his Fighters thanks to Celise. They were hiding somewhere outside of town in the wastelands. Shade had no idea what awaited them, but he was prepared to face whatever came his way. He had to get Phoebe back.
Faye turned her head and looked at Diane with anger. “Are you just going to let him go?”
There was sadness in Diane's eyes, but a gentle smile played on her lips. “Yes.”
She didn't say anything else, making Faye turn to Wind again. “Isn't Diane your priority? Are you just going to leave her?”
“I'm not leaving her. Diane is safe here, but Phoebe is not safe. Shade needs my help. I'm sure he would do the same for me if it had been the other way around.”
Shade grew tired of all of this. Anger stirred up within him. “Enough!” he yelled with his strong voice, making everyone in the room jump. “We are wasting time.”
He grabbed the bag that stood on the floor and headed for the door with irritated steps. The bag was packed with food, clothing, and other things, like a flashlight, that might come in handy. Phoebe could be hurt, and here he was, watching Wind arguing with Faye. Arguing with Faye was pointless because she was stubborn like few others. Telling her to shut up would only make her start yelling more. She just didn't listen and he had no interest in remaining here one minute longer.
Shade had no memory of how he had ended up in the house, but he assumed he had been taken here by car. Some cyborgs must have helped Wind to place him inside of Wind's car. Phoebe was several hours away and he and Wind were going by car to get there. It would be a new experience for him, but right now, he didn't care much for it. He was too irritated at Faye to think about anything else but getting to Phoebe as fast as possible.
He jerked the front door open to storm out but came to a halt.
On the other side of the door stood a man Shade had never seen before. The man was almost a head shorter than him. He was fit with short, light brown hair that looked like it hadn't seen a comb for weeks, and judging by how the man smelled, he hadn't set a foot inside of a shower for some time either. He had handsome facial features, but he was in a desperate need of some cleaning up. His eyes were half-closed as if he was tired. Not only that, he swayed from one foot to the other. Shade's gaze narrowed. The man's strange behavior told him there was something wrong with the man.
The man eyed him from the bottom up. “Who are you?”
“Shade.”
Shade found the man's voice to be strange as well. It was slow, unclear, and just didn't sound normal.
Diane approached the door. “Scott? What the heck are you doing here?”
Scott ignored both her and Shade and pushed himself through the front door. Shade watched him enter the house with suspicion. Was this man a friend of Phoebe's too? He didn't know what to think of the man's weird behavior, but something told him to be on his guard. He slowly went inside again, watching the man as a cat watching its prey. If this man weren't a friend, he would make him regret interrupting him from trying to save Phoebe.
Shade gazed at Diane. She didn't seem happy to see the man. Neither was Wind, Faye, or Celise.
The man stormed around inside the one-floor house with an angry expression. Phoebe had a beautiful house with wide and open spaces. Everything was in bright colors, making it appealing to be in there, but the man's presence spread an unnerving atmosphere. The big hallway was connected with the living room on one side and the kitchen on the other. Shade watched the man disappear into the kitchen and come back a few seconds later.
“Where is the bitch?” the man yelled as he ran from one room to the other, or tried to run from one room to the other. He swayed around most of the time. It was a miracle that he hadn't lost his balance yet.
Shade dropped the bag. He found the man unpleasant and he didn't like having him around. Filled with determination and irritation, Shade placed himself in Scott's way. The man didn't see it coming and collided with Shade, running straight into him without the chance of stopping before it was too late. Scott groaned and grimaced with pain from the impact before he fell to the floor. Shade didn't even twitch a muscle. The man seemed strong because of his fit body, but compared to Shade, he was weak.
No one came running to help Scott up. Shade didn't have any patience to wait for him to get up on his feet. The last thing Shade needed was for someone to stand in the way of him reaching Phoebe, and right now, this man was a huge obstacle. He leaned down and grabbed Scott's shirt before he pulled him roughly up to his feet.
“What bitch are you talking about?” Shade asked with a threatening voice.
The man ignored the question. “Let go of me, you big gorilla! Do you know who I am? I can have you arrested! If I don't find that little bitch soon, there will be hell to pay.”
Shade raised an eyebrow. The man was obviously not afraid.
Wind approached with his usually calm expression. “This is Scott, Shade. He is Phoebe's ex-boyfriend, and he is looking for Phoebe.”
Shade's gaze jerked to Wind as pain surged through him upon hearing Wind's words. He remembered Phoebe talking on the phone with Faye a few weeks ago, mentioning someone named Scott, but he hadn't registered it at the time. He had not been fully functional then, but he was now. The pain of knowing that he was in front of a man Phoebe had slept with before him hurt like hell.
“I see what goes through your mind,” Wind said, “but don't worry. Phoebe will never take him back. I promise you that. She is all yours.”
Shade took a deep breath. He should know that. Phoebe was his, but she also had a history before him, and this man with his weird behavior was a part of it.
“He did nothing but hurt her when they were together. He mistreated her, constantly calling her names and pushing her down.”
His anger for the man grew. “Does she still care for him?”
“No. If she had been here, she would have told you to get him out of the house.”
Scott tried to get free from Shade's grip without success. Now, when Shade knew what Phoebe thought about the man, he knew what he could do to him. He would never allow Scott to hurt Phoebe again.
With a roar, he pressed Scott against the wall next to the front door. Scott groaned from the impact, immediately making him sober up somewhat. He locked gazes with Shade and his eyes grew bigger as fear grabbed him. Out of the corner of his eye, Shade saw that neither Diane, Wind, nor Celise moved a muscle to stop him from teaching Scott a lesson. That told him a lot. He noticed that Faye wasn't in the room. He had no idea where she had gone, but it didn't matter right now.
“You are a cyborg,” Scott said with a gasp.
Shade snorted. “You notice that first now?”
“He is drunk,” Wind said.
“What does that mean?” Shade gave Wind a questioning look.
“I will tell you later.”
Shade nodded and turned his focus back to Scott, pressing the man harder against the wall. “You listen to me now, you little shit. I am Phoebe's, I am bound to her, meaning she is under my protection. You better leave and never come back. If I see your ugly face here again, I promise you that your life will turn into a living hell. Am I making myself clear?”
Disbelief filled Scott's face. “I can't believe she got herself a machine when she could have had a real man instead.”
Shade had had enough. The anger within him grew into rage. Phoebe was in danger, and here he was, arguing with an idiot that did nothing but stand in his way. Without hesitation, he threw Scott out of the house through the door. The man landed on his side on the ground, screaming as if something broke. Shade didn't care if Scott hurt himself. It wasn't his problem, but he couldn't leave him here while he and Wind were gone. That would only give Scott the chance to harass the women during their absence.
He grabbed the bag from the floor and turned to Wind. “Is there somewhere we can leave him?”
Wind nodded. “There is a police station where a few cyborgs work here in Glaswell. They will take care of him.”
“Good. Where does he live?”
“On the other side of Glaswell, but if we tell the police what happened here today, they will make sure he moves away from Glaswell. He has been warned before and was told he would not get a second warning.”
“Even better.” He placed the bag on his back. “We are leaving.”
Wind nodded and turned to Diane. Diane approached him and put her thin arms around him. She tried to smile, but her lips shook and a tear ran down her cheek. There was no missing the worry that emanated from her.
“Come back to me,” she said in a low voice, but loud enough for Shade to hear her.
Shade turned his head to Celise. She stood silently next to Diane with her lips pressed together. She wrung her hands and had her gaze fixed onto the floor. Not until Wind turned to her did she look up at him with huge eyes. Wind grabbed her hands and gave her a gentle smile.
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