by Cynthia Sax
All the cyborgs nodded, even Rage looking impressed with that feat.
Ghost gritted his teeth, straining. His strength wasn’t enough. He remained captured. “Safe.” He had to keep his female safe.
His scans indicated his female was horizontal. She would be defenseless in that position.
“Rage’s female has been present at every offspring appearance.” Crash sounded sympathetic. “She will ensure both your female and your offspring are undamaged.”
“It’ll be over soon.” Ace said that as though Ghost’s concern was speed. “Your offspring is cyborg, not human. The process is fast.”
“Your offspring is also a C model,” Rage boasted. “He’ll be strong.”
“He won’t be all C model. Thank the stars.” Crash teased. “Rage’s offspring inherited their mother’s organic brain. That compensated for their father’s outdated processors.”
“Frag you,” Rage cursed.
“She,” Ghost muttered. “Female.”
There was a pause and they laughed.
“I told you he was damaged.” Thrasher gibed.
“There are no female offspring,” Ace explained. “We create males.”
His offspring was a female. Ghost fought to escape. If they didn’t know that was possible, they couldn’t know his female was safe.
The conversation turned to the training of offspring and then to battle. The chatter increased Ghost’s stress. His enhanced auditory system detected statements from the other females to remain still, to not look. His nostrils twitched. He smelled blood.
His female’s blood.
“Mine.” He beat Rage with his fists.
The C Model retaliated, pounding him into the ground. Flesh smacked against flesh. One of Rage’s large fists landed on his face. Ghost’s head snapped back and he tasted blood. They fought, inflicting non-lethal damage on each other.
It would have been satisfying except his female was in danger. Ghost rumbled with anger, his bottom lip split, his head spinning. He had to go to her, protect her.
“Ghost,” she shrieked, the fear in her voice shredding him.
“Mine,” Ghost bellowed. He heaved his body upward, using every bit of power he had.
The cyborgs were temporarily airborne.
He rolled out from under them, sprang to his feet, and ran.
“I told you.” Thrasher muttered, chasing after him. “Three was not enough.”
Ghost ripped off the door to the medic ship and rushed through the space, following his female’s scent.
“Quick. Finish closing her up and cover her.” Ace and Thrasher’s female commanded.
When he entered the chamber, the females scattered. Rage’s female held a suture gun. Crash’s female hid her hands behind her back, her flight suit stretching tightly across her belly. Ace and Thrasher’s female had speckles of blood on her uniform sleeves.
All of the females pressed their forms against the walls, giving him a clear view of his female, knowing to not get between him and the being he sought to protect.
A concealing cloth covered his female’s body. Her hair was damp. Her skin was flushed. Her eyes were bright.
She was alive. Relief flooded his senses.
His gaze lowered.
He stared, unable to process what his vision system was communicating. “Mine?”
“Meet our offspring, Ghost.” His female beamed, holding out a wriggling little being wrapped in a tiny concealing cloth. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
“Beautiful.” Stunned, he moved closer to them.
Their offspring had a mop of black hair, gray skin, no model number on her cheek. She looked up at him with brilliant blue eyes and the floor shifted under his feet.
He fell to his knees beside the sleeping support. “Ours.”
“Yes, ours.” His female glowed.
He touched their offspring’s hands. She wrapped her tiny fingers around one of his, held on, her grip cyborg tight, and he was captivated, the love in his big heart growing to encompass both of his females.
“Protect.” His voice was husky. He would trade his lifespan for theirs with no hesitation.
The other females in the chamber awwwed. The newly arrived males went to them, taking their females into their arms.
Ghost’s offspring grunted.
His female laughed. “She has your vocabulary.”
“She is a C model,” Crash teased.
Ghost looked at Rage, meeting his gaze. “Even.”
Any debt the cyborg thought he owed him had been settled.
“We will never be even.” Rage glanced at his own female, love reflecting in his eyes.
“This is getting too fucking sappy for me.” Crash’s female brushed her hands over her wet cheeks, the tuft of orange hair on top of her head waving. “I need to fly something and I hear our new mother has added a modified skimmer to her impressive ship collection. Who is with me?”
“I’m always with you, my Safyre.” Crash grinned.
“Then move your ass, my Crash, because I want the first choice of ships.” She marched out of the chamber.
“Your competition is Ace, Thrasher, and their female.” The E model followed her. “C Models aren’t skilled at flying.”
“Frag you,” Rage grumbled, bumping his female forward. The others streamed out of the chamber with them, leaving Ghost alone with his two females.
He gazed at them, his heart full. “Damaged?”
“I’m not feeling any pain.” His female smiled at him. “You?” She touched his split bottom lip.
“Cyborg.” The beating was a small price for such great joy.
She glanced down at their offspring. “I suspect I’ll be hearing that response often.”
The little female continued to hold onto Ghost’s finger. She blew bubbles with her mouth, looking up at him with an intelligence passed from cyborg to cyborg.
She was theirs.
His female had given him this gift. “I love you, Mine.”
“I love you too, Ghost.”
He saw that caring in her big brown eyes.
Their offspring grunted. His female laughed and Ghost beamed.
Those were happy sounds.
# # #
If you enjoyed Ghost Of A Machine and would like to receive updates on characters plus a notification when the next story in the Cyborg Sizzle Series becomes available, sign up for Cynthia Sax’s release day newsletter at http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/
Keep in touch with Cynthia using the following links:
Website: CynthiaSax.com
Newsletter: Taste of Cyn newsletter
Facebook: cynthia.sax
Twitter: @CynthiaSax
Blog: TasteOfCyn.com
Other Books by Cynthia Sax
Cyborg Sizzle Series
Releasing Rage
Breathing Vapor
Being Green
Crash And Burn
Defying Death
Chasing Mayhem
Jumping Barrel
Hers To Command
Refuge Series
Dark Thoughts
Excerpt – Dark Thoughts
Refuge Series
Cynthia Sax
The Refuge series is set in the same world as Ghost Of A Machine.
Rhea and Paloma will appear in Dark Sky.
Here is an excerpt from Dark Thoughts, the first story in that series.
* * *
“There’s no reason to kill me.” The tiny female pulled her goggles down, hung them around her neck, revealing eyes as blue as the sky above them. “I’m not inside your precious Refuge and I haven’t broken any of your beloved rules.”
“Yet.” His tone was dry.
“Yet.” She walked toward him, her gait loose, her lack of concern for the danger he presented perversely turning him on. The female was fearless.
“You’re a threat.” He didn’t know why he was waiting to eliminate her. “Are you alone?”
“I’m
always alone.” Sadness flitted across her beautiful face, a cloud passing over the sun. Then her smile returned. “How am I a threat to you?” She purred, her full pink lips vibrating with each word.
He wanted to capture that tender flesh between his teeth and pull.
“You’re a big strong male.” She drifted her gaze over his physique, her perusal as sensual as a caress, heating him to the bone. “I’m a small human female.”
“You are small.” Kralj surveyed her form as slowly, savoring her slight curves, her lean muscles, her upturned face. He was much taller than she was, the height differential forcing her into an excitingly submissive stance. “And you’re definitely female.” He longed to see her on her knees before him. “But are you human?” He bared his fangs, showing her he wasn’t one of her kind. “I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Her eyelids partially lowered, that physical acknowledgment of his dominance pleasing his primal nature. “You know what I’m thinking.”
She slid her tongue over her bottom lip, wetting her flesh.
He tracked the movement with his gaze, achingly aware of her, of the need to possess this female, to subdue her. His brain warned him she was dangerous. His body didn’t care. “What are you?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Kralj.”
He liked the way she said his name. He didn’t like that he didn’t know hers.
“I’m human.” She moved within his reach.
An intriguing vitality surrounded her, calling to him. He’d been alone for so long, solitary, emotionally isolated, unable to touch another being without causing damage, without killing.
“I was born with a brain telepaths can’t access.” She verified that exciting fact.
The powerful humanoid part of him couldn’t harm her. He’d never met a being like her.
“That’s why I was chosen.” She swirled her fingertips over her right shoulder, tracing the aligned sun moon planet embossed in her body covering.
It was the symbol of the Dark Veil, a guild of assassins. She was a monster as he was, trained to end lives, violent and soulless.
His desire for her escalated.
“What are you?” She smiled up at him.
“I’m not a mere telepath.” His psychic abilities exceeded any type of measurement. “I’m unlike anything you’ve ever encountered.”
She lifted her chin. “You don’t know what I’ve encountered.”
“You haven’t encountered any being like me.” Kralj was certain of that fact. “I’m the beast hunting you in your nightmares, the fear you feel in the dark, the prickling over the back of your neck when you think you’re alone.” He gazed down at her, fighting the urge to grab her, to sink his fangs into her pale neck. “I’m not a male you play with, little one.”
“My name is Dita. And who said I was playing?” She walked her fingertips across his chest, heedless of the danger she was in, oblivious to how close he was to taking her, tasting her. “You’re an attractive male.”
He wasn’t an attractive male. He was a scarred beast, as hideous on the inside as he was on the outside. She dared to taunt him and that angered him.
“You find this appealing?” Kralj leaned forward, dissipating the shadows partially concealing his face, forcing her to look at his scars.
The right side of his face horrified the staunchest of beings. The skin from his forehead to his chin was angry and red, twisted, stretched, permanently melted.
It would repel her. She’d drop the irritatingly effective seductress act.
He could then view her as merely another enemy, kill her if that was the best solution to the problem she presented. There would be no hesitation, no emotions clouding his judgment.
“Yes.” Dita reached up and touched his scarred cheek.
He flinched, surprised, shocked, stimulated beyond all reason. Although he was tempted, his inner alarms ringing a warning, he didn’t retreat, didn’t draw his face away from her hand. He stood his ground.
She inflicted more damage on his equilibrium, her fingers calloused yet gentle, fluttering over his skin. “I find this extremely appealing, handsome.”
* * *
Get Dark Thoughts
About Cynthia Sax
USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes contemporary, SciFi and paranormal erotic romances. Her stories have been featured in Star Magazine, Real Time With Bill Maher, and numerous best of erotic romance top ten lists.
She lives in a world filled with magic and romance. Although her heroes may not always say, “I love you,” they will do anything for the women they adore. They live passionately. They play hard. They love the same women forever.
Cynthia has loved the same wonderful man forever. Her supportive hubby offers himself up to the joys and pains of research, while they travel the world together, meeting fascinating people and finding inspiration in exotic places such as Istanbul, Bali, and Chicago.
Sign up for her dirty-joke-filled release day newsletter and visit her on the web at www.CynthiaSax.com
Keep in touch with Cynthia using the following links:
Website: CynthiaSax.com
Newsletter: Taste of Cyn newsletter
Facebook: cynthia.sax
Twitter: @CynthiaSax
Blog: TasteOfCyn.com
# # #