Dark Hysteria: Cyborg Shifters #8

by Lucas, Naomi

  “What are you doing?”

  Hysterian covered Raul’s face with his hand and closed his eyes.

  Raul thrashed and tore at Hysterian’s hand. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

  “‘You’ll see, Dear. You’ll never want another man between your legs after me. I knew you had a rack to die for hiding under all these layers,’” Hysterian whispered Raul’s words back to him as Hysterian’s glands opened. A dangerously high dose of batrachotoxin, mixed with nanobots to pierce the skin layer, released from his glands.

  It was the first toxin Hysterian ever had in his arsenal. The one he was created with. The one his body naturally made, implanted within his systems by the very doctors who built him, enhanced to meet Hysterian’s worst needs.

  Raul screamed, kicked, rammed his elbow into Hysterian, but ultimately succumbed. Everyone always succumbed. Within moments, Raul had enough toxin in his system to send him straight into paralysis. His body went limp, and Hysterian dropped his hand from Raul’s face. He hauled Raul’s body onto the bed and laid him out.

  Hysterian pulled out a needle from his inside pocket and injected Raul with tetrodotoxin, a counter to his poison. Just enough to keep Raul alive, alive and in misery until he recovered.

  Hysterian dropped the needle and crushed it under his boot. He stared at Raul for a time. The ion blocker would be in Raul’s system even with the counter for weeks to come. Hysterian made sure of it.

  “You will suffer a day for every second you were touching her,” he whispered into Raul’s ear.

  When Raul finally did rise and have full use of his body again, the Questor, Alexa, and the rest of the crew would be on the other side of the universe.

  Hysterian exhaled, tugged his glove back on, and turned for the door. He stepped out to find the headmistress and the sexbot he ordered waiting for him on the other side.

  “Is it done?” the headmistress pushed off the wall where she had been leaning, smoking a cig.

  “I’m satisfied.” His eyes slid to the sexbot, who retained Alexa’s features. Her black hair, her pale skin. But the eyes were wrong, and the shape of the sexbot’s face. Everything was off. Her scent, her straight nose, even her height. He flicked his eyes back to the brothel’s owner.

  “Very good. We like it when our patrons achieve satisfaction, especially well-paying patrons such as yourself.” She ran her hand down his arm.

  He grabbed her hand. “Don’t.”

  The headmistress smiled. “You still have your appointment.” She stepped back to indicate the sexbot, tugging her hand free. “If you’re in the mood.”

  All he was in the mood for now was to get off of fucking Libra and back into space, far, far away from the trouble lying in the room behind him. Killing Raul would make his life easier, but Raul had done nothing personally to Hysterian besides touching what was his. He’d killed Daniels already. His quota for this trip was done. And he still had the body to dispose of. Killing Raul would start a precedent Hysterian wanted to avoid.

  He’d left Raphael and Elyria to start a new life, a better one, one he could be proud of having. He wasn’t going to have that life with a wake of corpses floating behind him.

  Nightheart could deny him the cure if that happened. If Hysterian fucked up as badly as some other Cyborgs working for his new boss had in the past, Nightheart would lose his shit. It wasn’t worth the risk.

  “I’m not,” he told the woman. “But the man in the room behind me will need a place to recover. He’ll need to be taken care of. Do that for me, will you?”

  “I think we can manage that.” The headmistress smiled again. She turned to the sexbot. “He’s yours, love. Make him happy, okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The sexbot moved to enter the room.

  Hysterian grabbed her wrist, stopping her. “Turn back into a blond and stay that way. Are we clear?”

  The sexbot nodded, changing the color of her hair and skin back to the way they were earlier. He released her, and she fled into the room. Hysterian nodded at the headmistress and exited the brothel, far more satisfied than he ever planned on being, leaving it.

  He stretched his fingers before curling them into his palms. The noise of the port flooded his audio.

  He hadn’t felt this good in months.

  His head was clear. He may not have fucked, but Raul was gone and Alexa was all his now. Hysterian didn’t have to worry about what was happening when he was busy. Raul was going to pay for touching what Hysterian wanted most.

  He had no qualms with the rest of his crew. They were good workers who stayed in line, obeyed orders, and didn’t ask probing questions. They were all a captain could ask for.

  Hysterian cracked his neck and made his way through the seedier parts of the port, back toward the shops.

  A weight lifted off his chest as his distance from Raul increased.

  Hysterian scanned the rusty, piped ceiling, wondering how high it was—at least two stories—and how much force he’d need to be able to jump and reach it. The frog in him was eager, excited. Sprightly. Moments like these, when he didn’t hate the universe and everything in it, were rare.

  Hysterian cleared his throat and continued.

  A textile shop caught his attention. He’d asked Horace to find out if there were any shipments of nanocloth on or coming to Libra while they were docked, and Horace hadn’t gotten back to him yet. Hysterian shifted course and made his way to the store.

  He had extra time on his hands.

  He wasn’t needed back on the Questor anytime soon.

  And if the shop had what he was looking for…

  His lips twitched under his suit. The day would end on an even better night.

  Fifteen

  Alexa fingered the soft material of the dress. It slipped across her hand like flowing water. She didn’t have anything like it in her wardrobe—she’d never owned anything so nice, let alone own a dress at all. She had no need for one growing up, and so never had a reason to own one.

  She didn’t need one now either. Maybe later, maybe someday.

  Alexa dropped her hand and she moved onto the next store where activewear and standard-issue space uniforms were being sold. She needed new clothes, but not a dress, and especially not the silky green one in the last shop.

  Making her way toward the discounted stuff, she checked the time on her wristcon.

  Eighteen hundred standard shift hours. She had thirty more minutes to waste before she had to meet up with Pigeon and Raul at Termite, a bar Pigeon insisted they all go to for a drink. She didn’t want to go and had no intention of getting a drink, but anywhere was better than being on the ship.

  She grabbed a couple of packs of medium shirts, pants, and a sweater for something to wear when she needed to pretend to be cold. And socks. She couldn’t forget socks. Alexa paid for her clothes and ducked out.

  For the past two hours, she’d been in and out of stores. She thought—when everyone disembarked to leave the Questor—that she’d just follow one of the other crewmates and join them on their errands. Raul at least would be free, right? But when her boots hit the terminal, they’d all vanished into the crowd, leaving her without a place to go.

  That’s fine. Alexa chewed on the inside of her cheek. I shouldn’t have expected company anyway. She was used to it.

  It was her fault for getting attached.

  Libra wasn’t anything new. The port didn’t have the tri-suns of Elyria, the history of Earth, or the vastness of Titan. It was just a hunk of metal floating through space. Though she was swept away by the noise and Libra's buzzing crowds. Humans from all over the universe swarmed around her. Watching them was surprisingly interesting.

  She gave them backstories and wished she was among them, that she was a captain of one of the many ships docked. It would never be, but she liked to pretend.

  Alexa glanced at her wristcon again.

  She had fifteen minutes until she needed to be at Termite. The bar was at the end of the
dock and up the rafters, where people could drink and watch the bustle below at the same time.

  She stopped at the last store on her list. The one Alexa had avoided. A lingerie shop. Stringy, lacy garments hung off androids in the front in colors of red, black, and gold. Some had chains, others were made of leather, and still, there was an entire corner where there wasn’t any color at all—only bridal white.

  Like anyone’s coming here to buy wedding night undergarments.

  Alexa shifted on her feet. Maybe people here are into roleplay. She glanced around uneasily.

  She pretended to look at the store beside this one, selling textiles and bolts of cloth. But her eyes kept shifting back to the lingerie.

  Damn it, just walk in.

  She gritted her teeth and entered the shop. Glitter, sweet-scented perfume, and soft music met her upon the first step through the archway. She swept her gaze over the room. There, in the center of the store, clearly in view of the entrance, was a table with piles of underwear upon it in every material and color. Her fingers stretched out for the cotton underwear but stopped midway.

  They fell upon silky black panties instead.

  They would barely cover her, and there was a slit in them down the middle. So you can wear them while having sex? She rubbed the material between her finger and thumb. Alexa flushed, imagining what that would be like.

  What Hysterian would do if he saw her in them…

  Her callouses snagged in the material.

  “Those are a favorite with the men here,” a woman said from behind her.

  Alexa pivoted, clutching the underwear to her chest. “I’m only looking.”

  It was an android. A beautiful, older-looking one. She wore a silky red robe, open in the front, to reveal perfect breasts wrapped up in ruby satin. Auburn hair fell over her shoulders in thick waves, ending on a curl down her back.

  Alexa gripped the panties harder.

  The lady smiled. “They’d look good on you.”

  “What would?”

  The android’s eyes twinkled. “Those panties, of course.”

  Alexa dropped her eyes. “Oh, right.”

  “I know just the thing to wear them with,” the shopkeeper said, turning on her heel and stepping toward a rack exploding with black lingerie and lace. She yanked something out, and then another thing, and returned before Alexa could tell her not to. “This. This would match those panties and make you a goddess. Men will fall on their knees to worship you.”

  A black robe fell between them like a waterfall, and with it, a lacy garter belt with a matching bra. The back of the bra had a large, black bow.

  A gift.

  More than anything, Alexa wanted to touch the fabric. “You think so?” she whispered.

  She imagined what Hysterian would do if he saw her in something like…that. A rush of excitement flooded her, and though she was thrilled in it, she hated it at the same time.

  “A goddess.” The android nodded. “Whoever the lucky guy is won’t know what hit him.”

  Alexa inhaled.

  The shopkeeper folded the lingerie in her arms, turned, and went toward a table where another android was helping a man.

  Alexa had no choice but to follow.

  “I don’t know if I should…” she started to say.

  The android wrapped and bagged the lingerie. “Nonsense. You have the assets. Now use them.”

  Alexa turned her wristcon on and swiped the funds toward the shopkeeper. Alexa looked down at her body and her lack of curves. “I don’t think so.”

  The man beside her stepped away and checked her out. Alexa stiffened.

  He hummed, grabbing his bag from the android helping him. “She’s right. You’ll be fine.” He inclined his head at Alexa and left the shop, leaving her an embarrassed mess as one of the shopkeepers nodded with him in agreement.

  Alexa snatched her bag and peeked into it. What had she just bought? She closed it up tight and stuffed the bag in with her purchase from earlier. She turned to the android helping her.

  “Make him beg,” the android said.

  Alexa shivered but nodded, her excitement wavering somewhere between dread and longing. Hysterian would never beg. Never.

  But she really liked the idea of it.

  She started to leave but pivoted right back, remembering why she was here at all in the first place.

  Fifteen minutes later, she was rushing through the port toward Termite, having spent much longer in the lingerie shop than she had planned on. The shopkeeper convinced her that she could do her job wearing silk, satin, and thongs instead of cotton and linen. Now Alexa had more panties and bras than she would ever, ever need and in materials she never thought she’d ever own.

  She pushed through the crowd gathering out in front of Termite, searching for Pigeon and Raul. The smell of liquor was strong here, and so was the laughter. Pushing through a group of men, she found Pigeon at the bar, holding a beer.

  He waved when he saw her approach.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Alexa said. “Where’s Raul?”

  Pigeon shrugged. “Not here yet. And no worries, I was just enjoying a beer in the meantime. The Terraform Championship is on.” He flicked a finger toward a screen behind the bar.

  Alexa saw the two empty glass bottles next to Pigeon’s elbow. “Or three.”

  “Hey. I’m on break, and it’s not like there’s anything for me to do anyway,” he teased.

  It was a running joke with the others. Pigeon was an engineer for a brand new ship that did not need an engineer…yet. He was often found reading a book in the lounge or playing word games on his wristcon in the middle of the day shift.

  “And the Captain’s hired help didn’t like me sticking around to check out the Questor’s water system with them,” Pigeon continued. “Apparently, it’s working just fine. It was fine the twelve times I checked it, but why listen to the expert?”

  “Really? They found nothing wrong?” The water was almost always cold on the Questor, at least during the night shifts when most of the crew showered. “Odd.” She liked cold water, so she didn’t mind if the water system got fixed or not.

  “It is what it is. They don’t want us peons getting too comfortable now.” Pigeon smiled.

  Alexa leaned her elbows on the bar. “I think you’re right.”

  Pigeon cocked a brow. “You go shopping?”

  She started to shake her head but stopped, recalling what she’d bought, what was hiding in the bag hanging over her shoulder. “For some new clothes,” she muttered. What would Pigeon or Raul say if they saw what she splurged on?

  What would they think? She had no intention of wearing it, ever, especially not for Hysterian. If she wore the lingerie, it would be for herself.

  What if Hysterian finds it?

  Hell… Alexa secured her bag to her side. I need to return it. What if someone found it, even if it wasn’t Hysterian? No one would look at her the same way. A month ago, she wouldn’t have cared what Pigeon, Horace, or Raul thought about her. She did now. She cared a lot.

  She liked having their respect. She wanted to keep it.

  The man sitting on the stool beside Pigeon strode off. Alexa slid into his seat. “Can I…ask you a question, Pigeon?”

  Pigeon lowered his beer. “Depends.”

  She swallowed. “Have you ever really wanted something? And I mean really wanted something, something you knew you shouldn’t have, whether it was because it would be bad for you, or it was out of your reach?”

  She wanted Hysterian. She shouldn’t want Hysterian.

  “Yeaah… Why?”

  “What did you do?”

  Pigeon swiveled to face her. “Well, that’s not the kind of question I was expecting from you. Want to tell me what’s wrong?”

  “No.”

  Pigeon rubbed his chin. “Okay. It’s private. Is this about you and the captain?”

  Alexa stiffened. “What?” How did he…?

  “You and the captain? That’s wha
t this is about, isn’t it? Please, don’t tell me it’s about Raul… You can do better than that.”

  “I—” What was she supposed to say? “How did you know?”

  Pigeon laughed. “I’ve been around a long time, been around a lot of women too for a great deal of it. I know when a man’s messing up the peace. As a dad, I hated it. The captain has eyes for you. Is that the problem?”

  “No, that’s not it.”

  “Are you worried we’re going to care if you start something up with him? Because I can tell you right now, I don’t give a damn. I only want you to be careful.”

  Alexa threaded her fingers together on the bar. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Well, you need to break things off with Raul.”

  She sighed. “I know.”

  “He’s not going to be happy about it.”

  Boy did she know that. She suspected sharing a room with Raul wasn’t going to work long-term. “I don’t want to want the…captain,” she admitted.

  “We don’t always get to choose what the heart wants, kiddo. Sometimes it chooses for you.”

  She placed her hands in her lap. “What should I do?”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. Except that…if it’s only chemistry, then I’d think long and hard about taking the leap with someone like Hysterian. He’d treat you well. I’ve never heard of a Cyborg treating a woman wrong—even with all the stuff on the network lately,” Pigeon waved his hand. “But he’s also your boss. If things went poorly—”

  “I know.”

  “—you could find yourself out of a job.”

  Or dead. Alexa wanted to say. She could wind up dead. “Being a Cyborg doesn’t make him a good person.”

  “No, but neither does being human, and what’s a person that isn’t human?”

  Alexa rubbed her face. God, how she wished she could tell Pigeon everything. Spill her guts and have some of the weight of her secrets given away.

  She couldn’t, especially not to him. She’d be putting him in danger if she did something so selfish. He has daughters.

  “An alien?” she teased, answering him.