Seeking Vector (Cyborg Sizzle Book 10)

by Cynthia Sax

  His eyes narrowed. You’re doing the same. He paused. Fraggin’ hole. You’re in my ship.

  His body blurred as he moved, rushing out of the chamber. His speed made him impossible to track through the hallways but she knew where he was going.

  Her warrior was coming for her.

  Kasia stood, preferring to face him on her booted feet. It wouldn’t take him long to navigate the hallways. She gazed at her reflection in the handheld screen, pinched her cheeks to add some color, swept her hands over her hair, ensuring it was free of dust and debris.

  In the past, other warriors had mistaken her for a male and that had helped her survive. But it would crush her if Vector viewed her the same way.

  She wanted him to desire her as much as she desired him. Kasia partially unfastened her flight suit, revealing the shallow valley between her small breasts.

  His cyborg half, she understood. She’d been playing with machines her entire lifespan, felt comfortable with their logic processes.

  It was his human side that made her nervous. She hadn’t had much contact with organic beings over the past twelve solar cycles, had no sexual encounters since then. The previous males had been youths, not a battle-hardened warrior.

  The doors opened. Kasia turned her head and her breath hitched.

  Vector stood on the threshold, blocking her exit, tall and broad and extremely angry, emotion rippling the air between them. He stared at her, his eyes brilliant blue, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, his booted feet braced apart.

  She stared back at him, her nipples tightening, her pussy wet, her yearning for him, for his touch, doubling, tripling with each passing moment.

  Silence stretched.

  She licked her suddenly dry lips. His gaze tracked the movement.

  “How did you enter my ship undetected?” His voice filled the chamber, filled her.

  She quivered with awareness. “Your perimeter sensors were adequate.” Technology, she could talk about. It was a topic she was familiar with. “Your other security measures were not.”

  She lifted her chin, couldn’t meet his gaze directly. He was too tall. That was a unique situation for her.

  She liked it.

  “The docking bay was locked and monitored.” His lips twisted. “I didn’t expect any intruders.”

  “You should always expect intruders.”

  He paused for a moment and then dipped his head. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

  Kasia smiled. It took confidence to admit an error. “We could make different mistakes.” She walked toward him, exaggerating the sway of her hips.

  “No.”

  The dominance in his tone stopped her. Her lips parted.

  “No.” Vector surged forward, slamming her against the wall.

  She gasped, the air whooshing out of her lungs. He captured her wrists with his left palm, stretched her arms above her head. Her muscles flexed, pulled tight. The fingers of his right hand curled around her neck, severing her protests.

  He slid her wrists along the wall, lifting her by her arms until her booted feet dangled above the floor. She wasn’t a small female yet he supported her weight with little visible effort.

  He could kill her. Easily. One squeeze of his fingers and he’d crush her windpipe beyond all recovery. One twist of his hand and he’d break her neck.

  “No.” His gaze lowered to her mouth. “No.” He mashed his lips against hers, his grip on her neck loosening.

  She opened to him. He pressed forward, owning her with his tongue, his lips. It wasn’t a gentle first kiss. Their teeth clinked. Her lips throbbed. He thrashed her flesh with his, punishing her for daring to enter his warship, his private chambers.

  His body was hard, the ridge in his body armor pressing against her mons. His eyes blazed. She was pinned in place, her arms restrained above her head, his form before her, the wall at her back.

  All she could do was accept his erotic reprimand. Every part of her touched by his lips fizzed, bubbling with his nanocybotics. They sped his healing and now increased her arousal.

  He tasted of metal and frustrated male, his breath wafting over her cheeks, his chest rising and falling against her breasts, teasing her nipples.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips, hooking her booted feet over his clenched ass cheeks. The change of position aligned her cloth-covered pussy lips with his body armor-clad cock, the length and width of him thrilling her.

  She rubbed along him, matching the tempo of his tongue, moving upward with every advance, downward with every retreat. He stroked her neck with his rough fingertips, brushing his right thumb over her jaw.

  When she heard his voice, she knew it would be like this between them, a wildfire of passion, burning out of control, scorching everything in its path. He had tried to hide it, concealing his savage nature under a layer of mechanical coolness but the female in her had detected it in his deep tones, in the pauses pregnant with meaning.

  Kasia realized her rule-loving male wouldn’t surrender long to his emotions. He’d fight them, resist her. It would take time and convincing to break through his firewalls.

  That was why she’d taken precautions with this first meeting.

  Vector wouldn’t be happy with that action either. He mouthed over her chin and the bubbling sensation spread. She arched her back, pressing her body against his.

  “I would never place you in danger.” She tried to ease his anger in advance. “You’re safe with me, Vector.”

  His head lifted, his gaze locking with hers. “What did you do, female?”

  She hadn’t done anything. Yet. “I’ve learned sharing information rarely creates change. When the torture, the killing happens to another being on another planet, it’s easy to ignore it, to do nothing. But once we personally experience the injustice, once we see the situation for ourselves, we often act.”

  “Sharing information is sufficient for me.” He flung her away from him.

  She sailed through the air, landed on the sleeping support, bounced. “I told you about the Betelgeuse Alpha invasion. You did nothing.”

  Vector jutted his jaw. “The council made that decision. I didn’t have the authority to do anything.”

  “No, you didn’t have the incentive.” Kasia called him on his bullshit. “If it had been your precious Homeland being invaded, you would have acted.”

  His face hardened. “If you have put the Homeland in danger, I will—”

  His words stopped, his mouth, body, everything freezing in place.

  He shouldn’t be able to see her. His vision system relied heavily on his machine side. But he should be able to hear her, feel her touch.

  “Your precious Homeland is safe and so are you.” Kasia rolled off the sleeping support, walked toward him. “I won’t allow anyone to harm you.”

  She caressed his face, swept her fingertips over his lips. They were soft, unlike the rest of him.

  “I won’t allow anyone to harm you permanently,” she amended. “The effects you’re temporarily experiencing should be painless.” Her research said it should be but she wasn’t certain about that. He was the first warrior she’d tested the EMP on. “They will wear off in a few moments.” Preferably, long after she was gone.

  The skin under his model number twitched.

  “The designers of the first cyborgs put in some fail-safes.” She’d uncovered that in her explorations of the Humanoid Alliance databases. “They can monitor your transmissions. They can hide from your lifeform scanners. And they can render you powerless using an EMP at a specific frequency, a frequency your opponents are unlikely to utilize, unless they were informed about it.”

  That was what she’d used on him. She drifted her fingers over his neck, across his simulated collarbone, wishing it wasn’t covered with the body armor.

  “The Humanoid Alliance, thinking you’re brainless machines, got complacent and stopped monitoring your transmissions. Those patches of your programming, hidden from both casual viewers
and yourself, were blindly duplicated. The Humanoid Alliance have likely forgotten about that, about the lifeform scanners, about the EMP, but now that you’ve rebelled, they’ll quickly remember.”

  The Humanoid Alliance would hunt her cyborgs, hunt him. When caught, the humans would enslave the warriors again, or worse, put them to death.

  “I erased the information from all databases. However, I thought I had erased my personal information from all databases also.” She’d worked hard to accomplish that feat. “And you uncovered that.”

  She could never return to her family or contact them in any way. The Humanoid Alliance could be monitoring her loved ones, would kill them for speaking with her.

  “The only solution is to remove those vulnerabilities from your systems.” Kasia extracted a data stick from the front pocket of her flight suit. “This is clean.” She slipped it into one of his gun holsters. “It contains all of the information I’ve gathered on the fail-safes, along with some of my ideas to counteract them.”

  The cyborgs were highly intelligent, might eventually arrive at those same solutions, but providing her musings could save them some precious time.

  “I’ve included the text versions of the core programming for all cyborg models.” Kasia had hacked into the cyborgs’ processors to access that information. She patted Vector’s chest, knowing her control-happy warrior wouldn’t be happy when he uncovered that fact. “Your design won’t allow you to see those beautiful blocks of programming. They’re hidden from you.”

  That had been a clever tweak. The warriors, not knowing the fail-safes were there, wouldn’t be tempted to change them.

  “I realize you’re likely angry with me right now.” Kasia gripped her C Model’s broad shoulders. “And I don’t blame you, but I couldn’t risk a transmission and I couldn’t risk you disregarding my warning. Your lifespan, the lifespans of the cyborgs on board this battle station, on your Homeland, across the universe, depend on you taking action. Now.”

  The Humanoid Alliance could be uncovering the fail-safes as they spoke.

  “I’m leaving.” She lifted onto her tiptoes and brushed her lips over his. “Take action on this information and you won’t have to search for me. I’ll willingly surrender to you.”

  If he didn’t take action, she would have to do so.

  Trepidation, mixed with excitement, flowed through Kasia. Her strengths were uncovering information, not leading missions.

  She would likely die when she took action.

  But at least she would be doing something. She wouldn’t be hidden in an air conduit, watching as other beings were tortured and killed.

  “My surrender will be temporary.” Not knowing his plans for her, she wouldn’t permanently agree to anything. “But you’ll enjoy it.” She kissed him again. “I promise.”

  Kasia surveyed Vector’s stark face one more time, turned, and walked away.

  Chapter Five

  His fraggin’ female had frozen his mechanics and shut down his processors. Vector stood in his warship like the emotional fool he was, unable to move, unable to communicate with his brethren.

  When he regained motion, he would take her over his knee and smack that perky ass of hers until she cried for mercy.

  Then he would smack it some more. She’d wear his handprint on her dark skin for planet rotations.

  As he would taste her in his mouth for planet rotations, the sweet flavor of wild, willing female lingering on his lips. Kissing her hadn’t been wise. He wiggled his fingers, his ability to move gradually returning. Their embrace had landed him in this embarrassing situation.

  But it had been worth it.

  And Kasia had been correct. The EMP had been painless. She hadn’t been certain about that. He had heard the concern in her voice.

  His female’s momma summed her up perfectly. She was reckless— experimenting on him, a living being; invading a cyborg’s ship; allowing a male who could have been her enemy to touch her, to wrap his fingers around her neck.

  He could have killed her. Easily. Another warrior would have.

  The urge to smack her ass intensified.

  Vector’s processors whirred. His vision system flickered, returning online. Transmissions flowed over him.

  He closed his mouth, flexed his arms, took a cautious step forward. The EMP hadn’t permanently damaged his systems. He was fully operational.

  Return to the ship. He transmitted to his crew. Immediately.

  His female had given him a data stick. That might be a trap but he had to read it. His need to have the knowledge it contained, to see what she had crafted for him, clawed at Vector.

  He preferred to take that dangerous step with his crew around him. They could recover him if there was a virus.

  A virus. His gaze lowered to his boots. What he’d endured on Furud One was the insect version of a virus. He almost hadn’t survived it.

  Many of his brethren hadn’t been as fortunate.

  His gut said Kasia wouldn’t harm him, but his gut had been wrong in the past. It was safer to follow rules, to operate with restraint.

  Using his right index finger only, Vector nudged one of the handhelds she’d left behind. Nothing happened. He picked it up, accessed it. No password, fingerprint, or any other verification was required. His female was hyperaware of security, had scolded him about his ship’s defenses.

  She wanted him to access the handheld.

  He scanned through its databases at cyborg speed and realized why. The device contained proof that a human could access cyborg lines, had the EMP frequency any being would need to render him immobile, showed him how she had been hiding from lifeform scans.

  It would allow him to find her, communicate with her. His mood lightened.

  “You found our female.” North entered the chamber. The rest of the crew was behind him.

  “She’s my female.” That correction slipped out of Vector’s mouth.

  “She’s your female?” North stared at him. Chuckles’ jaw dropped. Doc peered at him as though he was malfunctioning.

  “I knew it.” Truth laughed. “You were a little too intense about finding her.”

  Vector ignored the warrior. “Have any of you ever seen copies of our programming in the databases?” He knew the answer but required confirmation.

  “No.”

  “Never.”

  All his males shook their heads.

  He thought so. Vector pressed his lips together. He was going to lock Kasia up. His fraggin’ female had hacked into cyborgs’ processors, into his processors to retrieve that information.

  What else had she accessed? A wave of cold swept over him. Had she explored the databases containing his memories? He glanced down at his boots.

  Did she know all of his secrets?

  Vector blew out his breath. He would deal with that and with her later.

  “I was given this.” He extracted the data stick from the holster. “The source is untrustworthy.” Even with her hacking exposed, that felt like a lie. “I might require you to restore my systems.”

  “End all of your transmissions,” Doc advised, taking out his own handheld.

  Vector severed communications with all of his brethren. The silence was eerie, like the quiet after battle.

  Or after his entire team had been dissolved by acid-spewing alien insects.

  Was this how his female felt, having cut off communications with her family? Was there a hollow space in her processors, in her heart?

  Vector pushed his sympathy for her aside. He broadened his stance, bracing for pain, and inserted the data stick into his neck slot.

  It was clean. He exhaled, his shoulders lowering. Each piece of information had been stored in its safest, least corruptible format. History told him multiple scans had been performed on it after it had been loaded.

  “Doc?” He asked for farther verification.

  Their medic placed one of Vector’s fingertips on the handheld. “There’s no sign of any malfunction.”
>
  “Sharing the information.” Vector added layers upon layers of encryption and broadcast the contents of the data stick to his team using their most secure transmission line.

  There was a pause. Vector restored his other transmissions, the flood of voices across the lines a relief. His processors had been too quiet.

  “Fraggin’ hole.” Truth’s smile faded. “Is that possible? An EMP would knock us out?”

  “I can personally verify it is possible.” Vector’s tone was dry.

  “Your female knocked you out?” North’s eyes widened. “Was that why you weren’t answering transmissions?”

  “That was why.” Vector gave him the second handheld, keeping the first one for himself. “Use this with caution. It’ll render all of us immobile.”

  “All of us.” Chuckles repeated, looking even more grim than he usually was. “We’d be defenseless against the humans.” He said that word with distaste. “The Humanoid Alliance could disable every cyborg in the universe.”

  Cyborgs could be temporarily stunned. They had already known about that weakness. But a weapon would have to lock onto their forms for that to happen. And cyborgs moved too quickly for most humans to shoot. Plus, the enemy would have to stun them one at a time.

  An EMP range could be extended to encompass the entire universe. All cyborgs everywhere could be rendered immobile with one tap of a slender finger.

  They had no defenses against that type of attack.

  “Who else knows this information?” North examined the handheld.

  Vector couldn’t answer that question. “She deleted the information from every database she could access but there could be hard copies, offline storage.”

  “The current Designer went missing after his compound on Tau Ceti was blown up.” Truth relayed. “He would know this information also.”

  “Everyone, Humanoid Alliance, Rebel, Other, could already know this.” Chuckles shifted his weight to his fully functional leg. “Everyone except us.”

  Millions of their brethren were at risk. They could unknowingly be walking into danger as Vector and his brethren had unknowingly walked into danger on Furud One.