“My name is Avril.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Avril?”
She smiled again as she approached the table. She didn't want to make any sudden moves. He could interpret that the wrong way.
She stopped in front of the table and laid the rose on it. She didn't dare to give it to him directly. She had heard Jade's words about the bonding process initiating from one intimate touch. Would that happen if she accidentally touched him as she gave him the flower even if it wasn't an intimate touch? She didn't know, but she wouldn't risk it.
“This is for you.” She pushed the flower closer to him.
He picked it up and studied it for a while before he shot her a dark gaze. “Is this some kind of joke?”
Avril tried not to show that his words hurt. Didn't the rose trigger some kind of memory in him? Cyborgs were supposed to have an amazing memory.
“No, no joke.” She pulled out the chair and sat down.
“Then why are you giving me a rose?”
She watched him for a while. Her heart still pounded hard inside of her chest, almost unwilling to calm down. Her chin trembled, making it difficult to talk, but somehow, she managed to form words and speak them without sounding too afraid or too desperate. Her entire body felt weak just by being this close to him. Thankfully, she was sitting and not standing. There was no telling when her knees would have given in beneath her if she had still been standing. He had always made a deep impact on her. As a child, her childish crush on him had ruled her daydreams. Over the years, he had become a memory she had always turned to whenever she had needed comfort.
He had always understood her and he had always been there for her, as a friend. He had made her feel like someone had actually cared about her. Her childhood had been a lonely experience. Her parents had taken care of her, but they had been passive. They had never spoken to her about all those things a child needed to talk about. They had never done anything together with her. Their dinners had mostly been silent or filled with pointless discussions, but Hunter had been there for her. He had given her all those things she had so desperately needed from an adult. Someone who had listened, someone who had understood and done things together with her. Sarah had always been there too. Today, Avril understood that Hunter and Sarah had known what her life had been like because they had never told her "no". They had made time for her, and Avril couldn't have been more grateful. Then Sarah had died and Hunter had been taken away by MedAct. The most important people in her life were gone and it had broken her heart. But now, Hunter was back, and she would do anything to make him stay. She would return the favor. She would save his life just like he had once saved hers.
She watched him lower his gaze to the rose and study it for a while before he looked up at her again.
“You say your name is Avril?”
She nodded. Tears gathered behind her eyes when she saw his face relax and a gentle smile revealed on his kissable lips.
“You're not a child anymore.”
She smiled too and dried away the tear that managed to run down her cheek. “No, I am not.”
He looked her over. It sent a wave of nervousness through her. Did he like what he saw? She knew she wasn't one of the fittest women out there, but she wasn't fat or anything. Makeup didn't decorate her face either, and her dark brown hair hung down her shoulders.
“You have grown into an attractive woman, Avril.” His expression was serious, making her believe he meant it.
She blushed. “Thank you.”
He leaned back into his chair. “How come you are here?”
“I heard you had been brought in and I needed to see you. You've been in my thoughts ever since ...” Avril didn't finish. She couldn't, but she saw his smile disappear. Sadness filled his eyes.
“Do you work for MedAct?” he asked, obviously not interested in talking about the past.
“No, I don't. I work as a waitress outside of Glaswell. I'm renting a small apartment near my work.”
“So life has been good to you?”
She shrugged. “It's been okay, but it's been ... boring.” She licked her lips. “I have thought of you every day since you disappeared. I was so worried. For years, I had no idea what had happened to you. Then one day, I heard you had joined the Fighters. It made me happy to hear that you were still alive, but the few photos that had been taken of you showed that you lived a tough life.” She swallowed hard. It was difficult to talk again and her throat became thick as the tears threatened to run down her cheeks again. “I watched you turn into someone I didn't know. Every few years, new photos of you showed up, and with each photo, you looked even more marked by life. I wanted to help you just like you had once helped me. That is why I'm here now.”
Avril jerked when he grabbed her hand. His touch was warm and firm, but his eyes didn't flash. Apparently, a touch like this didn't trigger the bonding process.
He smiled at her. “Thank you, Avril. I really appreciate you thinking of me over the years and for wanting to help me.”
“You and Sarah were my whole world. You both meant to me more than you'll ever know. You kept me on my feet and gave me a purpose. And when you disappeared, you took a part of me with you.”
His grip on her hand tightened and she hugged his hand back. “I'm so sorry, Avril. I didn't know.”
She nodded. “It's okay. The important thing is that you are back, and I'm so happy to see you again.”
“I'm happy to see you too.”
They looked at each other for what felt like minutes, and Avril couldn't help but take in his beauty. His handsome and dark features made her emotions go wild. He awakened everything she had felt for a long time. She had forced herself to put him in the past and move on with her life, but now, when he sat right in front of her, it was impossible to do. What she felt for him now was much stronger than just a simple crush. It had evolved into love over the years. She hadn't been able to stop it.
“So what do you do apart from working as a waitress and running around at MedAct?” He grinned.
“Not much. I spend most of my time at home reading books or enjoying a movie.”
“Do you have someone in your life?”
Avril winced. She hadn't expected that question. “No.”
“And how about your parents?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea. I haven't spoken to them in two years.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”
“Ever since I moved out from home, I did everything in my power to stay in touch with them. But I was always the one making the phone calls, always the one inviting them over for dinner, or trying to make them do things with me.” She sighed.
“What happened?”
“I decided to stop trying and let them take the first step.” She went silent for a while. “I'm still waiting for them to call.”
Hunter grabbed her other hand. “If I wasn't in here, I would take you out for dinner and a movie. I'm sure we could have a lot of fun.”
Hope awoke within her. She hadn't expected to see the old Hunter so fast, but he had emerged as soon as he had remembered her. That made her the happiest woman alive, but at the same time, she knew that he meant taking her out as a friend. That was all she was to him. She assumed, that in his mind, she was still that twelve-year-old girl who loved spending time with him and his bound one. Maybe he had a hard time seeing past that. If it was so, making him accept her as his next bound one would be even more difficult than she had ever imagined.
“I would love that, and this time, we can do adult stuff instead of child stuff.” Avril blushed when she realized her words could be misunderstood. “Um ... I didn't mean ...”
He laughed, and the sound of his laughter hit her right in the chest, awakening all those wonderful memories she had pushed aside.
“It's okay,” he said. “I understand what you mean.”
“Good. It would be rather embarrassing if you didn't.” She felt the heat on her cheeks grow and it would only get worse if s
he didn't change the subject. “How about you? How have you been doing?” She already had the answer to that question, but she had just blurted it out, searching for something to say.
His expression changed instantly. His smile disappeared and his features hardened. It felt like she had hit a sensitive subject, and she didn't expect it to be anything else. But at the same time, she wanted to know. She had worried herself sick about him over the years. Especially those times when she had seen pictures of him in the media defending himself from the police force or the cyborg soldiers. There had been a few times when she had believed that his final moment had come. She had cried herself to sleep those nights.
Hunter took a deep breath. “I don't remember much from the days after Sarah's death. I remember killing the driver, but after that, it's black. For how long, I don't know, but I remember the feelings that came over me as I felt the bond break. The pain, the despair. It literally felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest, and no matter what I did, I wasn't able to control it. It was so intense that it made me lose consciousness on several occasions. I knew I was dying, but then, from one minute to the other, it all just stopped. The emotional pain was still there, but hidden deep down.” He placed his hand against his chest. “I can still feel it, every day of my life. I feel the damage that has been done, but I also feel how the bond is trying to repair itself.” He took another deep breath. “After what felt like a century, I woke up in an ambulance. I was being transported somewhere. I quickly realized that I was in one of MedAct's ambulances, but I didn't want to go where ever they were taking me. To make a long story short, I managed to escape. I lingered in the woods for days until Nightmare and his Fighters found me. They made repairs to my programming, but it was far from successful. The damage was too great, but I'm still here.”
Avril wished she could have been there for him. “I'm so sorry.”
He went silent for a while. “Why are you here, Avril, really?”
She gulped. It wasn't just a question. It felt more like an order, and she knew that she had to tell him.
“I think you know why,” she mumbled.
His expression tensed as he nodded. “MedAct talked you into becoming my new bound one, didn't they?”
She winced from his assumption. “No! I volunteered.”
CHAPTER 3
Hunter felt surprise fill him as he stared at the brown-haired beauty in front of him. He didn't like the hurt he now saw in her eyes.
“Why would you do that?” he asked.
“Because ... I care about you. I want to give you a new chance at happiness. It always hurt every time I saw you in the media and when I saw what had become of you. I knew you didn't have much of a choice and I knew that if MedAct ever managed to get their hands on you that they would try to convince you into binding yourself to a woman again. I wanted to be there when that day came.”
The blush on her cheeks made her even more appealing. Avril, the sweet and cute, little twelve-year-old girl from long ago was now an all grown up woman, and he couldn't stop staring at her. He heard her words, but her face kept him mesmerized.
“You can't see me as your bound one, can you?” Her voice was sad.
Her question took him off guard. He opened his mouth to answer, but he didn't know what to say. Could she be a potential bound one for him? He knew that once he bound himself to her, he would love her just as much as he had loved Sarah, but right now? Well, he barely knew her, and besides, he had always considered them as friends. Nothing more. It would have been strange otherwise.
“I'm still that twelve-year-old girl in your mind, aren't I?” she asked.
“I guess, in a way, you are.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Avril, why do you want to become my bound one?”
“Because if it's not me, another woman will fill that place. Because if I don't, and you refuse to bind yourself, you will be taken away to a place I cannot go, and we will never see each other again. Because if I don't, you will try to escape so that you can go back to the Fighters, and the risk of you getting hurt again is big. I don't ever want to see you get hurt again.”
He watched her for a while, studying her facial expressions and body language. There was something she wasn't telling him. She seemed too scared, too nervous, too desperate.
“What is the real reason, Avril? You wouldn't put yourself through all that just to save me. Binding yourself to a Fighter is like asking for trouble. We are difficult, damaged, untrustworthy. Don't you know that?”
She nodded. “I know, but you smiled at me as soon as you recognized me. You will never hurt me.”
She had a point. If another woman had walked in it would have been a completely different story. He knew he would have never hurt the woman, but he would have scared her into changing her mind about him. He would have shown her his worst sides, but with Avril, he just couldn't do that.
“What is the real reason, Avril?” he asked again, this time with a more demanding tone.
He watched her swallow and move nervously on her chair. She opened her mouth. He saw her lips tremble. She had been close to tears for a while now, and she seemed even closer now.
“I ... I want to help you.”
“So you are doing this out of guilt? You feel that you owe me because I helped you when you were a child?”
Her chin dropped and she stared at him with huge eyes. “No, it's not like that.”
“Then how is it like, Avril? You realize that once I'm bound to you, you will never get rid of me, right? It will be for life. You won't be able to throw me out once you grow tired of me.”
She looked down and he realized he had hurt her. He immediately regretted his words, but she needed to know the truth. She needed to see the truth in the eye and not expect some kind of fairy tale. He wasn't sure she saw it like that, but he often wondered how the women who wanted to bind a Fighter to them thought. The Fighter's problems didn't go away just because a new bond was in place. Sure, he would feel better, but his programming would still be scarred and damaged from what had once happened.
“I will never grow tired of you,” she said with a low voice.
Confusion grew within him, but at the same time, he became more and more certain that she was hiding something. There was another reason she was doing this.
“I'm damaged, Avril.”
“I know. I've read your files.”
He winced. “My files?”
She nodded. “Doctor Jade Silva showed me your files yesterday. She wanted me to be sure before you and I met.”
“Of course.” He sighed. “And what did my files say?”
“That your programming is severely damaged because of the broken bond. It makes you unstable and gives you restless nights. You switch easily between emotions and anger controls you. You know, all that could be fixed if you bound yourself to me. Jade told me that a few days ago.”
He snorted. “I guess she got the chance to examine me when I was asleep.”
“No, I don't think she did. She told me they wouldn't do that against your will.”
He snorted. “Against my will? She drugged me over and over again. Where was my will then?”
He glared at the one-way window. He couldn't see through it, but he was sure that Jade was on the other side of it. If she tried something like that again, he would make her pay. He wouldn't physically hurt her, but intimidation was something he was good at. Yes, his anger drove him. His anger had been his partner ever since Sarah had died, but his anger had also kept him alive. Living among the Fighters wasn't easy. Most had some sanity left. He was one of them and because of that, he was able to help Nightmare with his goals, but some Fighters had to be kept restrained. Not only were they a danger to others, but also to themselves. It had happened on several occasions that Fighters had attacked him for no reason. Some had had so badly damaged programming that they had been beyond saving and their lives had been terminated with a bullet to the head. It had been fast and easy, ending their suffering.
It was a revelation just as shocking and surprising as Sarah's death had been, but in the end, he knew he would never allow it to happen. It didn't matter how sick and tired he was of being a Fighter. Besides, Avril was doing this for the wrong reasons. He refused to be bound to someone who wanted to help him out of guilt. He was sure that was why she was doing this even if she said otherwise.
There was a knock on the door before it opened. A cyborg soldier came in, pushing a cart filled with food. The aroma of mashed potatoes, chicken legs, and dark gravy hit Hunter in the face. It was all put on elegant porcelain bowls. Next to the bowls, he saw two plates, two sets of cutlery, and a bowl filled with vegetables. There were also plenty of sodas, a can of water, and a can of orange juice. Since he was a cyborg, he ate a lot, but there was more than enough on the cart for two people. Apparently, Jade expected him to eat together with Avril.
Two days without eating had taken its toll on his body. He was weak and his mouth watered when he saw all the deliciousness. The drug that had been used on him had made him even weaker, but he had tried not to show how he actually felt. He didn't want anyone to know that his knees were shaking even when he was sitting, or that his hands felt like heavy bricks when he tried to lift them. He wanted them to think that he was all right.
The cyborg soldier left the room without a word.
Tempted Cyborg Page 2