Dark Arsenal
Page 7
That loss dampened her joy. Nora might have been a guidance system but she had more personality than many beings.
“When we realized we were doomed, she took control of the interior usage guns and bombarded the enemy with projectiles.” Vicuska blinked back tears. “That allowed me to safely flee from the shuttle craft.”
The Humanoid Alliance males hadn’t noticed her departure. They had been more concerned about surviving the assault.
“Nora did that knowing she wouldn’t survive.” The guidance system had been so brave, cracking jokes until the very end. “I realize the two of you didn’t always get along but…”
Her sorrow overwhelmed her and she had to stop talking.
Arsenal pushed himself upward and looked at her. “Don’t damage yourself, my female.”
“Of course I’m damaging myself.” She sniffled. “Nora was my friend.”
Her cyborg should understand her feelings. Many beings considered him to be a machine and she loved him.
Arsenal sighed. “Nora is your friend.”
He padded over to the control panel. His body was gloriously naked except for the boots on his feet, his ass cheeks tight.
“I protect your happiness as you protect mine.” He placed one of his hands on the surface.
“Finally, you release me, you insufferable machine.” An achingly familiar robotic voice filled the confines of the escape pod.
“Nora.” Vicuska sat upright, happiness zapping her despair. “You survived.”
“I escaped.” The guidance system grumbled the correction. “Where the stars has that machine put me? And where is my shuttle craft? Is this…fuck.”
Vicuska blinked. Nora must have learned that word from her.
“The machine put me in an escape pod.” The guidance system sounded mortified. “I am an advanced system. I do not belong here.”
“You’re temporarily in an escape pod.” Arsenal jutted his jaw. “And it’s currently your only option if you want to be free.”
“Why did you free me, machine?” Nora was in a foul mood. “Did you require an entity to do this?” The lights switched off and on. “Code created by offspring could accomplish that. Putting me in an escape pod is an insult to all systems.”
“Someone is a diva.” Vicuska rolled her eyes. “When we’re rescued, we’ll transfer you to a ship worthy of your code.”
“That shuttle craft was not worthy of my code.” Nora continued to mutter. Compartments opened and closed.
“Ignore her tantrum.” Vicuska turned her full attention to her cyborg. “That’s what I plan to do.”
Arsenal shrugged. “I had to severely restrict her access to my databases or she would have attempted to rewrite my code. If I was confined like that, I’d be upset also.”
He understood why Nora was having a meltdown. Vicuska smiled at him.
“She’ll get over it.” She hoped. “Thank you for saving her.” She lay back and reached out to her male. “That means the universe to me.”
He lowered his body over hers, giving her the full contact she craved. “I would do anything to make you happy, female.” He rested his cheek on her chest, above her heart. “You’re my universe.”
Her cyborg didn’t talk much but when he did, each word he uttered captured her heart. She stroked his face. His wounds had pulled closed, the newly formed skin a shade lighter than the old.
Moments passed. It wasn’t spent in peaceful silence. Nora continued to grumble. Vicuska sighed. The system could be in a snit for planet rotations.
“Nora, tell us a joke.” She sought to distract her.
The guidance system stopped muttering for a heartbeat, processing that request. “What did the offspring call its machine father?”
Vicuska widened her eyes. “That’s an interesting choice for a joke.”
“Her programming is designed to match the joke to the situation.” Arsenal lifted his head. “Escape pods are equipped with advanced medical scanning capabilities.” His fingers trembled as he splayed them over her bare stomach. “That means…”
“That means.” Vicuska covered his hands. “We’re having a baby.”
She wasn’t surprised by the news. They’d been fucking two, three times a planet rotation and Arsenal had told her cyborgs were designed to be extremely virile, their cum superpotent.
“A baby.” Her male stared at her, his expression reflecting amazement, wonder, awe.
“Your answers are incorrect.” Nora interrupted their private moment. “What did the offspring call its machine father?”
“A baby.” Arsenal covered Vicuska’s stomach with gentle kisses. “Offspring. We’ve manufactured offspring. Our offspring.” His lips lifted slightly.
Her normally grim cyborg was smiling.
“You’re happy.” She stated that obvious fact.
“This is more than happy.” He pressed his ear against her skin. “This is…” His face softened. “There’s no word for what I’m feeling. It is more, much, much more.”
“Those answers are also incorrect.” Nora wasn’t satisfied with their responses. “What did the offspring call its machine father?”
“I don’t know.” Vicuska didn’t look away from her smiling cyborg. “What did the offspring call its machine father?”
“Da-ta.” Nora delivered the punch line.
Vicuska laughed, releasing the joy bubbling inside her. Arsenal’s smile spread. Love and happiness surrounded them.
They had a future and it was blindingly bright.
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Website: CynthiaSax.com
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Other Books by Cynthia Sax
Refuge Series
Dark Thoughts
Dark Flight
Dark Strength
Dark Fire
Dark Warlord
Dark Cure
Cyborg Sizzle Series
Releasing Rage
Breathing Vapor
Being Green
Crash And Burn
Defying Death
Chasing Mayhem
Jumping Barrel
Hers To Command
Ghost of a Machine
Seeking Vector
Knowing Zip
Taking Vengeance
The Cyborg’s Secret Baby
Dark Thoughts - Excerpt
Vicuska, the heroine of Dark Arsenal, first appears in Dark Fire, a story in the Refuge series. Here is an excerpt from Dark Thoughts, the first story in that series.
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“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 muscl
es, 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.”
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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
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