Storm Surge (Cyborg Shifters Book 2)

by Naomi Lucas

  “No.”

  “Is Dommik here?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Damn it.”

  Norah wondered if Stryker and Matt knew how alike they were. She made a mental note to tell them, already amused by the reactions they’d have. She trailed off to the side as they spoke, her eyes scanning the Cyborg city, finding it wanting. Finding it gloomy and ordinary.

  She had secretly hoped it would have the bright neon lights of the inner cities on Earth. Colors from all over the spectrum had flashed through her bedroom window at night.

  “I need to purchase replacement tech for my ship.”

  “Some of the dealers are in.”

  “Is Brash in?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well? Is he busy?”

  The two Cyborgs next to her had the most stilted conversation she had ever heard. Norah was glad she wasn’t the only one who thought Netto was strange. Her gaze fell back onto the beefy man and again she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from asking him more about his...unusual self.

  More footsteps arose behind her and she turned to see several more large, scary-looking men come forward. They mutually checked each other out and she was suddenly nervous being surrounded by a bunch of killing machines.

  Her hand found Stryker’s again.

  There was surprise on some of their faces but she pretended to not notice.

  Stryker contracted a deal for his ship with them, it took all of a few minutes. The men left with the diagnostics he gave them. She didn’t see the exchange but she knew it had been done mentally, wirelessly between them. Norah twisted her hand to thread her fingers through Stryker’s. She siphoned the warmth from him.

  Netto remained, unmoving, waiting for something she didn’t know.

  “I need to ask a favor of you,” Stryker addressed him before he led the two of them back into his ship. When they stood within the laboratory, before the plants and creatures in stasis, he continued, “Can you transport my acquisitions back to the EPED headquarters on Earth?”

  Norah frowned and turned her attention to the shrieker in the back, wearing the bodysuit of the Wieraptor. It had begun to slump over the monster that was inside of it, it made it look gruesome and twisted.

  “I don’t work for them anymore,” the other Cyborg replied.

  “I’m willing to make it worth your while.”

  Norah tugged on his hand, “What’s happening?”

  Stryker looked her way. “The repairs are going to take some time and I don’t have the necessary materials to keep the lab running. Everything is running on fumes and I’m not willing to take my chances getting the creatures back to Earth when their habitats could go out at any time.”

  She twitched. She didn’t want to take that chance either, not with her nightmare being within one of them.

  He turned back to the other Cyborg. “I wouldn’t ask you if Dommik, Gunner, or one of the others were here, Netto.”

  She slipped her hand from Stryker’s and walked back toward the quarters she shared with him. When she was alone, she slipped out of her clothes and finally stepped into the shower pod. Norah didn’t know how much time passed as she stood under the currents. But when she finally turned it off, her skin was wrinkly and soft and her curls had straightened to plaster down her back.

  Norah lifted her hand and watched the water drip down her hand.

  She had a lot of unfinished business to deal with.

  A knock on the lavatory door had her looking away from her hand and slipping a towel on. It opened to Stryker, who for a full moment just checked her out. It was enough to bring a smile to her face.

  “We’re going to be staying on Ghost for a little while.”

  “I got that, so…Netto is going to take the creatures?” she asked, “Even the shrieker?”

  “That stays with us here, we’ll deliver it personally. I trust Netto but I want to make sure it gets to EonMed myself.” He lifted his shoulders. “I want to stay with my ship and help with the repairs. Make sure it’s done right.”

  Norah didn’t argue. She didn’t mind waiting a little longer to go back to her life as she healed, although a part of her just wanted to get back home.

  When she didn’t speak Stryker continued, “Unless–”

  “Unless?”

  “You want to go back now with Netto,” he finished.

  “Ha! No thank you, I’ll stay right here with you. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  His brow crinkled and as she stood, holding up her towel, he reached into his suit and pulled something out and handed it to her. Norah let go of her towel with one hand and took it.

  It was a picture of him. A picture of his face.

  Without the mask.

  Tears sprung to her eyes and she pressed the image to her chest, over her heart.

  “So you can see me whenever you want, whenever you need to.”

  Her throat closed up but she strangled out the words, “I love you.”

  “I love you too, babe.” He pulled her into his arms and she crushed her tear-streaked face into his chest.

  “What now?” she asked as she clung to him.

  “That’s up to you. My affairs, at least those that need attention, are in order. Now it’s just you.”

  “I want to see my family,” she quipped up before she had a chance to stop herself. It hurt. It hurt more than anything, thinking about them and everything that had happened to her. She had almost died, numerous times, without saying goodbye, without saying I love you, without having them in her life.

  Stryker lifted her chin. “Then that, Norah Lee, is our next mission.”

  Norah wanted to say a lot of things at that moment. She wanted to relay how much he had changed her life, how much he mattered to her, how she would never make the mistakes she had made before now that she was with him. Her heart bled. The love that had captured her had only grown and it flooded every fiber of her being. There was so much that she wanted to say, but she didn’t have the words.

  So instead she lifted onto her toes; Stryker met her halfway. And with the image of his face crushed between them, they pressed their foreheads together.

  She was Axone. And she had something to bring back to Earth after all.

  Epilogue:

  ***

  Norah stood in the alleyway, looking up the steps that led into her family’s condo. She remembered the place, embedded in her memory, her childhood.

  The flashing high rise towered over her and the neon lights in the windows of nearby shops hit the glass windows of the building, splintering outward in a cascade of technicolor. Somewhere far above, where, if she looked straight up, she could see it past the constant array of vehicles, thunder roared through the clouds.

  It echoed throughout the streets, a heavy ringing that drowned out the industrial noises of the street.

  Some part of her hoped that it would rain.

  Another part of her hoped that it wouldn’t.

  Rain was a constant. Somewhere in the universe, it was raining. And it always would.

  She had been planetside for several days now, dealing with EonMed and overseeing the transport of the shrieker she and Stryker had acquired. It had been grueling, but now the beast was locked away on one of the laboratories that floated over Earth. And after the fallout with Lindsey, Robert’s girlfriend, she couldn’t bear one more bad situation. Stryker had taken out funds to cover Lindsey’s failing eyesight and to have her eyes replaced with cybernetic ones. It hadn’t helped.

  The EPED was sending Stryker back out to acquire another Wieraptor. Some concessions were made and she was going to join him. It would use up all of her vacation time but afterward, when the beast was delivered, he would stay with her on Earth and take up a consultation job.

  He wouldn't hunt monsters anymore but he would oversee them. Stryker would guard one of the research facilities floating in orbit; his ship would be traded in for an advanced battle cruiser. It was hard to find a Cyborg who wa
s willing to protect, anything, for any corporation.

  Norah glanced up at Stryker and his brown eyes flashed blue at her. She loved it when he did that.

  Now there was a Retriever position open and soon to be empty, newly restored ship with no captain. Norah wondered who would be hired to fill Stryker's position. Monster Hunting wasn't a glamorous job but Stryker was sure someone, or something would want it.

  When Matt's application was thrown out, he demanded to be taken back to Ghost City, after their final hunt was over. Stryker's eyes flashed again to catch her attention.

  Norah felt taut, emotional, and on the verge of snapping in half.

  She didn’t move.

  He put his arm around her and squeezed. Norah looked back up at him and sighed. He had a new mask over his face made out of pryzian, a payment he had received from a fellow Cyborg, Dommik, for a past favor. Stryker had shaped the metal to fit his face and to interact with his other form. It was thinner, stronger, darker. It made him look even more intimidating than he already was.

  Norah had bought lipstick and painted it with kisses, but it was clean now.

  “I’m nervous.” She tugged on the back of his suit.

  “I know, but you need to do this. It’s been haunting you for weeks now and I won’t have it haunt you forever.”

  “You sure they still live here?” she asked for the dozenth time, buying her time in the process. Stryker squeezed her again. Another rumble of thunder echoed off the buildings around them. She was uncertain.

  She was scared.

  What if they hate me? What if they don’t remember who I am? It’s been so long. Norah took a step forward, then stopped.

  “They’re still here, babe. I looked them up in the public directory the third time you asked me.” His words were met with the woosh and spring of an umbrella. It rose up to cover the two of them just as the first tiny drop of rain hit the ground before her. It was a clear, mini force-field that changed based on the direction of the wind.

  “I wish we had one of these on Axone,” she murmured.

  The neon colors and street advertisements blurred inside the hazy shield. It made the rain look like jewels.

  “You’re stalling,” Stryker accused with a short laugh. “You wouldn’t be out here in the rain otherwise.”

  Ugh. Norah turned her attention back to the building that loomed before her and the worn steps that led into it, ground down by millennia of use. She remembered sitting on them as a child, lost in her own world, as children often are and pretended she was a celebrity on one of the many screens; chipping her purple nail polish off and threading her tongue over her teeth trying to get the sweetness out. Her tummy stuffed with jelly candies and her nose filled with the smells of rust and smoke.

  Norah threaded her fingers through her hair, straightened it out and tied it back. It had been another life.

  “I am stalling.”

  “I’ll be with you, babe.”

  “I know,” Norah huffed. “Do you think they’ll forgive me?”

  “I think they’ll love you. If they loved you before, they love you now,” he answered.

  She looked down at the worn pavement, her hands clammy, her heart racing. “I’ll just be leaving them again…” It was why she was scared of showing up, she didn’t want to break their hearts again.

  “But you’ll be coming back.” He was so matter-of-fact about it, it lessened her burden. Norah looked back up at the building.

  “Okay.” Be still my heart. Stryker tugged her ponytail.

  It’s now or never.

  She ascended the steps, two at a time, as if she were a child again and had never left. Stryker followed her and with the smile she gave him reflected in the glass, they entered together.

  Author’s Note

  ***

  Thank you so much for reading Storm Surge, the snake and the scientist, second in the Cyborg Shifters series. If you liked the story or have a comment please leave me a review! I love hearing from readers!

  If you enjoy cyborgs, aliens, anti-heroes, and adventure, follow me on facebook or through my blog online for information on new releases and updates.

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  Keep an eye out for Netto’s story and BOOK THREE of Cyborg Shifters, coming soon! Turn the page for the blurb...

  Naomi Lucas

  Shark Bite

  ***

  Netto was a Cyborg, a protector, and a contracted mercenary. His specialty was with the shallows, the salt water, and the open oceans across the universe. He was also a freak forged from the DNA of a bull shark–blue-grey skin, a body built with power, and a double-set of razor sharp teeth. His nomadic lifestyle changes when his old employer, the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division, offers him his old job back.

  Rylie was born and raised on the planet Kepler, on an agri-lot that farmed jewels from the sea. But something was happening to her family’s lots and people were going missing.

  When a giant Cyborg shows up in her settlement and commissions her family’s watership, she is forced to follow him out onto the water, into the dangers of the alien deep, far beyond the sight of land.

  She feared the Cyborg.

  She feared his teeth.

  But she feared the monsters in the water more.