Dark Hysteria: Cyborg Shifters #8

by Lucas, Naomi

  Hysterian stopped his eyes from bursting. He kept his face clear of emotion as the guard pushed Alexa toward Raphael.

  “You were brilliant, dove. Just brilliant.” He grabbed Alexa’s hands like a grandfather would his granddaughter. “For a moment there, I thought you sought to kill me. I’ve never had quite a surprise like that before.”

  Alexa stared at Raphael with nothing but disgust and hatred.

  Raphael was too secure in his own importance to notice.

  She spat in his face. “It wasn’t an act.” She yanked her hands out of Raphael’s as he slowly reached up to wipe the spit from his face.

  There it was, clarity. The gummy man who liked to party morphed into the cruel bastard Hysterian once admired.

  But he touched Alexa, and even if Hysterian hadn’t already decided to give Alexa what she wanted, Raphael had doomed himself to die.

  “Dove,” Raphael’s voice had lost its exuberance, “it would’ve been much easier for you if you’d just played along.”

  Hysterian stood, walked to the door, and locked it.

  One of the guards grabbed Alexa from behind and threw her onto the couch. She shrieked and struggled as the guard yanked up her dress and tore down her underwear.

  “Hysterian,” Raphael said. “You don’t mind if we speak later?” They had been close once, but never this close.

  Because deep down inside, Raphael was afraid of Hysterian. Even though Hysterian had once vowed his loyalty to Raphael, and a vow from a Cyborg was eternal. It mattered in many circles. It mattered to Raphael, but Hysterian had vowed other things as well.

  Like protecting the one he loved.

  He strode forward, pulled down his mask, and tore the guard off of Alexa. Hysterian spun the guard to face him and slammed his mouth to his. Stunned, the guard didn’t fight him as Hysterian filled his mouth with poison.

  Raphael recoiled, tripping to the other side of the room, sliding into the corner before Hysterian finished the kiss and flung the guard away. He stalked toward Raphael as pounding fists hit the locked door from the outside.

  “Hysterian, what are you doing? Please!” Raphael cried. “It’s my birthday!”

  “Alexa, are you ready?” Hysterian asked.

  He slammed his hand into Raphael’s forcefield without waiting for an answer. Electricity exploded, overwhelming his systems, setting him on fire. Hysterian pushed through, melting the skin off his fingers, his hand. His suit sparked, catching the electricity. The smell of hot metal and meat eclipsed the old stench of sex in the room.

  Alexa screamed.

  “Not yet,” he gritted.

  “Hysterian, what happened? I don’t know what I’ve done to anger you, but we can work this out, can’t we?” Raphael begged.

  Hysterian winced as Raphael’s shield repelled him.

  “Like the old ways, right?” Raphael continued. “I know what makes you happy, what helps take away the pressure.”

  “Shut up,” Hysterian growled.

  “I can bring you girls. I can drown you in them. Money, too. I need someone to help me manage my business. You could do that job. We could rule Elyria together!”

  Hysterian shifted his feet and braced his legs, feeling his hair curl and crisp around his ears. A crackle split the room, and his hand jerked forward.

  Raphael startled, pushing into the corner. Hysterian’s fingertips brushed Raphael’s cheek.

  “I know how to cure you!” Raphael screamed.

  With a grunt, Hysterian sprang up and slammed the entirety of his weight down on the shield. The forcefield shattered, and he spun and coiled his body around Raphael, stopping the inevitable blast of electricity from reaching Alexa.

  It hit him instead.

  Hysterian seized and tore off Raphael before he killed the fucker with his own gore.

  “Alexa,” he murmured, jittering with each spike of electricity. He dropped his arm with his gun, uncurling his fingers from it. “It’s time.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Alexa stared at the half-burned body. One eye twitched, the other was bloodshot and sparking. Organic matter sizzled, bubbled, and melted off metal plates and wires. With his hair half gone, Hysterian’s scalded eyes rolled her way.

  He’d found her. Her throat clogged.

  She could barely believe he was here at all.

  “Alexa, it’s time,” he croaked, his arm falling outward, his fingers unfurling around a firearm. It snapped her out of her daze.

  She rushed forward and snatched the gun. She aimed it at Raphael.

  Blubbering, staring outward, Raphael didn’t see her or the gun. She pulled the trigger. The blast eclipsed the pounding at the door, the music. Alexa closed her eyes, dropped her arm, and sighed.

  It was done.

  He’s dead.

  Then the ringing in her ears stopped, the pounding, screaming and music returned. Her eyes opened to find Hysterian struggling to rise to his feet. She rushed to his side.

  “Don’t!” he ordered, holding out his hand, stopping her. “I’ll kill you.”

  She halted, staring helplessly as blood and other unknown liquids squirted out of organs and tubes. “What can I do to help? Oh, God, you’re hurt. Why did you do that? Why did you do that?” Alexa could do nothing but watch as guilt choked her. She’d never felt more useless.

  Hysterian, pressing his hand to the wall, steadied himself. “I would do anything for you.” His mouth smoked as he said it. He blinked, and his eyes miraculously cleared. They cut to the door. “I’m fine, but staying that way will be hard if they get through.”

  “Fine?” she warbled. Hysterian looked closer to death than anything resembling fine.

  Nervously Alexa glanced at the door. The middle cracked like something large was being thrust against it. Thud. Snap!

  Her hand squeezed the gun still in her grip. “What do we do?”

  “There’s a hidden passage.” He stumbled toward a table off to the side where a crystal decanter and glasses rested untouched. “There’s only three more shots in that gun,” he bit out.

  She glanced at the weapon and nodded. “I’ll make them count.”

  “Yes.”

  Hysterian picked up one of the glasses and handed it to her. “Push the top into the groove,” he pointed to a textured bit under the table.

  Quickly, she took the glass from his hand and pressed it in. A staircase appeared behind the table.

  It was empty.

  “Go,” he ordered, spitting.

  Alexa dashed past him and entered the small space. The wall snapped back into place as the shouting from beyond broke through the outer barrier.

  For the next few minutes, she ran. Hysterian shouted directions, telling her where to go and what to do as he brought up the rear. The strength in his voice returned with each turn. The thumping bass of the club music pounded the walls.

  “Alexa, drop!” he ordered, springing past her fast enough she only caught a blur. Landing a few yards ahead, Hysterian shielded her as men appeared in the hallway ahead, guns swinging. “Shoot them!”

  Using Hysterian as cover made her sick, but she aimed anyway. Hysterian took the guards’ bullets like the metal wall he was as Alexa took them out. Something splashed her skin, and she yelped, wiping it off.

  The guards hadn’t even fully fallen before Hysterian twisted and saw what she was doing.

  “I got some of you on me!” she cried.

  “Calm down,” he growled. “Let me see.”

  Sucking in a breath, she stilled as he leaned forward and scanned her arm.

  “Hysterian,” she whispered as he studied her skin, liquids still pooling out of flickering, rent joints. It hurt her soul to see him in such a way.

  Fear threatened to take over. If she was poisoned, that was it. It filled her with terror knowing Hysterian would never leave her behind. Not if he’d come all this way for her.

  He would stay by her side as Raphael’s army swarmed them, fighting to the bitter end.


  His eyes flicked to hers just as the lights overhead went red, and the music stopped somewhere far off.

  “Fight it,” he said, amplifying her emotions. “Fight it, Alexa. For me. Go!”

  He threw his body against the wall for her to pass.

  She bit down and sprinted, counting the seconds in her head, already sensing her world teetering.

  Once they were through a door, they were finally back within the main part of the building. Hysterian surged into the air as more guards met them. He dropped atop them one by one, crushing their bodies. Below them lay the main floor of the dance room as people charged to the exits. Fleeing.

  They blurred as she stared at them.

  It wasn’t until Hysterian landed in front of her that her eyes cleared to focus on him.

  “Fight it! Go,” he yelled, pointing to the right.

  Alexa ran, blinking, finding her world growing fuzzy. Her fear, her worry for Hysterian vanished. When they broke through a large, metal door and the night sky—Elyria’s cloying heat—met her, she fell to her hands and knees.

  Screams filled the night. So many bright neon lights filled her eyes that she smiled.

  She was lifted uncomfortably off the ground, her dress strangling her body like a vice, feet dragging behind her, and she glimpsed Hysterian above. He was clutching the back of her dress, almost ripping it to lead her to a hovercraft on the roof.

  For a time, Alexa knew nothing else but a spinning, vibrant world.

  A beautiful world where her nightmares couldn’t get to her because they were dead.

  And she laughed. She laughed and laughed until her throat went hoarse and she tasted blood in her mouth. She couldn’t stop even when her ribs hurt, and her stomach cramped. Bile bled into her mouth, mixing with her blood, and she vomited.

  “I love you, Hysterian! I love you. I love you,” she wiped her mouth. She heaved again.

  She laughed.

  Twenty-Nine

  She didn’t know when her mind cleared, only that she woke to having water and broth trickling down her throat time and time again. Clarity returned more with each meal. Exhausted, Alexa groaned, rolling over in the soft bedding. Bedding she knew well. Her brain strained, trying to break from the cage of her skull. Her eyes snapped open.

  Hysterian sat beside her, watching her.

  It took her a moment to remember Dimes, Raphael’s blood on the walls, and Hysterian’s broken body. It all came back to her as they stared at each other.

  He was clean, dressed in a uniform she knew all too well, and only the slight char to the tips of his usually perfect hair gave any evidence of his state at Dimes. He’d made a full recovery, at least from what she could see, and Alexa sprang forward, wrapping her arms around him.

  She didn’t care if he held her back, or if he even liked her. She didn’t care if he planned to take her to the authorities and make her face her crimes. All she cared about was that he was here, whole, and she wasn’t alone.

  His arms came around her to hold her back. Gloved fingers tugged at her hair as they threaded through it.

  Tears slipped over her lashes as she held him, needing more.

  She didn’t know how to say it—she didn’t want him to deny her—but with her soul finally clear of all the grime covering it, Alexa tore at Hysterian’s pants, fumbling to open them.

  It had been so long.

  To hell whether she could touch him or not, she needed him inside her. Her fingers shook with her desperation.

  He released her to help her unveil his cock, straining to break from the nano mesh covering that hid it from her view. Alexa gripped it, rising up. She wasn’t wearing her dress anymore but a large shirt and cotton underwear—he’d changed her—and as her mind fumbled with that notion, his fingers tore her panties from her body. She lowered onto him.

  A cry tore from her mouth and her head fell back as her body struggled to open for him. The heat of his turgid tip burned her. The burn, the ache was perfection, and Alexa refused to let it beat her, impaling herself fully onto his length. Wet, she gloved him.

  His grunts filled her ears, his heat branded her flesh. Nearly suffocating on it as she rode him like her life depended on it. She fucked him through the madness in her mind. His power poised between her legs, she filled herself with him until she couldn’t.

  The orgasm that hit set her soul on fire.

  Hard fingers dug into her hips, taking over when her strength faltered. He jerked her body up and down, rutting her through the waves of her bliss until he found his own.

  She felt him expand, his body tensing, and then a bright flash of teal blasted the room, shooting from his eyes as he roared her name, plowing higher. Her feet swung as she bore down on him, wrapping her limbs around his large frame.

  They stayed that way, limbs locked together for hours, refusing to acknowledge anything else.

  Only each other.

  Everything else was dust. She couldn’t let it in.

  When she was naked, wrapped back in blankets, and gulping down her third cup of water, she knew their moment of heaven had come to an end. She watched as Hysterian straightened his uniform and tucked his cock back into his pants.

  “Rest,” he said. And then he was gone.

  Alexa had no reason to fight him. She fell asleep.

  When she woke the next time, she was alone. There were food and fresh clothes beside her. She ate, rose, and showered. The door to Hysterian’s quarters was open when she left the bathroom.

  She made her way out of the room and found Hysterian sitting alone in the bridge. Quietly, she made her way toward him. He stared out the porthole of his ship, and as she looked at the view, she discovered they were still on Elyria. He hadn’t taken her to the stars.

  Or to Earth.

  To be taken prisoner.

  He’d helped her, saved her. She owed him everything.

  Alexa licked her lips, knowing the fight had left her back at Dimes. “Whatever you decide to do to me, I won’t fight it.”

  “Is that so?” he purred.

  He could do a lot to her, a lot more than just turning her over. Alexa straightened. This was her penance. “Yes.”

  But she hoped he had an inkling of mercy—

  “You’re mine, Alexa,” he said, rising. The captain’s seat swiveled as he turned and faced her, staring her down.

  She wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly. Her brows wrinkled. “What?”

  “Say it.”

  She stared at him, surprised and confused.

  He took a step forward. “Say it.” A wildness touched his eyes.

  “I’m yours.”

  As the words left her, she felt them blanket her skin, becoming a part of her.

  Now in front of her, his hands cupped her head. Teal eyes searched hers. “Say it again.”

  “I’m yours,” she whispered.

  And just like that, she killed him.

  She saw it happen, the change that came across his face, just what she could read above the lip of his mask. Hysterian softened, his cold layers defrosting. The hard edges, the taut frame, the bulging muscles relaxed. The sheen of his secretion on his brow dried up.

  “I love you,” he said, his fingers spanning into her hair. But then his softness fled as his fingers tangled into the pale strands. “Never leave me again.” It was a warning. A threat that if she did, worse things would happen than what already had.

  Alexa shuddered, grasping his hands. “I’m a half-breed.”

  “And I’m a fucking frog, princess.”

  She closed her eyes as he clutched her to his chest. “It won’t work.”

  “We’ll make it work.”

  “And your skin? My dad? Everything else?”

  Hysterian’s arms banded around her like chains. He wasn’t ever letting her go. If she hadn’t wanted to stay, it would’ve been terrifying. But as it was, she settled.

  “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it,” he said, surprising her. “These last weeks without y
ou have been torture. Why didn’t you tell me?” He growled, squeezing her. “Why didn’t you say? I’m furious.” His voice cracked. “I’m…”

  “You can hurt me if you want,” she breathed.

  He jerked back. “Never.”

  Her eyes flooded with tears. “I love you.”

  Hysterian drew her back into his arms as she cried.

  The next few hours did hurt. He railed, yelled at her, destroyed a bridge that, to her surprise, had already been destroyed. She took it all, was happy to do it, because the more he unleashed, the more she realized they were going to be okay. Their pasts weighed heavy. They clung to every word spoken, every glance they gave each other, but as the minutes turned to hours, and the Elyrian suns descended the sky, the tension was slowly exorcised.

  At least she thought it had been.

  Pigeon arrived with a plate of food for her, and Alexa lost it, begging for forgiveness all over again.

  Not from Hysterian this time, but from Pigeon. And unlike how she cried with Hysterian, she sobbed against Pigeon. She didn’t eat that night, clinging to him as he and Hysterian tucked her back into bed. She felt like a little girl again. Pigeon sat by her side and told her stories of his daughters until she slept.

  Hysterian readied the ship for takeoff.

  He’d been keeping tabs on the local networks, and although the attack at Dimes was front and center when it came to Elyrian news, it never mentioned Raphael’s death or Hysterian. But the news did mention Alexa, showed pictures and requested information about her because she was wanted for the murders of eight men.

  She wasn’t going back to Elyria, not for a long, long time. It wasn’t until Alexa awoke in space the next day that she realized it.

  She said goodbye to her home, quietly, alone, under the blankets. She let her memories flick through her head. Alexa rose again alone. After she showered, she made her way to the lounge, ate, and went to the laboratory.

  She found a spare crew uniform in storage, tugged it on, and got back to work. Later, when her fingers were aching, she looked up to find Hysterian.

  Always.

  He was always there, always in her head, always just a breath away. It used to frighten her. Now, it made her feel safe.