Cryostorm (Touch of Frost)

by Lynn Rush

  I returned my focus to the huge room. It was filled with every game I could think of—not that I was a huge gamer by any means.

  Even the classics like Donkey Kong and Pac Man, which my brother had always loved.

  Off to the left were a row of basketball hoops and a basket of balls.

  “Want me to try and win you something?” Robo Nate stepped beside me. “I’m rather good at shooting hoops.”

  “I bet.” I doubted there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. “There’s an arcade at the GenCorp lab? I don’t get it.”

  “Movie theatre is a ways back, but yes. This is pretty much a self-sustaining city.” He urged me toward the basketball game. “I can take you out for ice cream after the show if you like.”

  I glanced around some more and noticed there weren’t any windows or doors from what I could tell. Only the elevators behind and games surrounding us. I’d not even seen the theatre doors yet. Dang this place was big.

  “Come on. Let’s see who can make the most baskets.” He picked up a ball and held it out to me.

  At least this was better than testing and labs. I reached for the ball. “You’re on.”

  Thirty minutes later, I held a stuff animal the size of a life-size polar bear and Robo Nate wore a frown.

  I’d kicked his ass.

  “Guess you aren’t as good with a basketball as you thought.” I backhanded him in the stomach then froze. Not literally, but I stopped in my tracks. How dare I relax like this? How dare I talk with Robo Nate as if he was…My Nate?

  Tears stung my eyes, and I looked around for the restroom. “Bathroom. I need a bathroom.” I handed Robo Nate my prize.

  “You okay?” He pointed to his left, and that’s when I saw the sign.

  I took off running.

  “Amanda!” Robo Nate called after me.

  I burst through the doors and skidded in front of the stool. Out came the breakfast he’d made for me. Good. I needed to purge that. How dare I let Robo Nate slip through my defenses.

  I pushed off the toilet and hurried to the sinks. A quick swish with water helped with the nasty taste, but my stomach still churned.

  “Amanda?” Robo Nate pounded on the door.

  “I’m fine.” I leaned forward and stared at myself in the mirror. Judging by the bags under my eyes and the pasty look to my skin, I was so not fine. More like confused. I’d betrayed My Nate by getting comfortable with Robo Nate. I’m sorry. God, my head hurt—almost as much as my heart.

  This shit with Robo Nate and Bev’s research needed to end, now, or so help me I was going to freeze this entire building down.

  I went to the door and pulled it open. Robo Nate stood there, holding my ridiculous prize, looking at me with narrowed eyes.

  “Are you sick?” he asked.

  “I’m fine.” I stepped out and to the side, toward the movie theatre. “What’s playing?”

  He cocked his head, watching me. He started to reach for me, but I shoved my hands in my pockets.

  “X-Men marathon.” He offered a tentative grin.

  Of course he’d know I liked those movies. He had access to My Nate’s memories. My heart cracked a little more. If only I was strong enough to break us out of here. Whisk us away to GEM. They’d figure something out to get My Nate back, wouldn’t they?

  My heart couldn’t handle much more of this.

  Chapter 39

  “Amanda?” Robo Nate’s voice trickled through my bedroom door.

  I turned over and faced the other direction, not saying a word.

  The door creaked open, as I knew it would, because Robo Nate went wherever he wanted whenever he wanted.

  It’d been three days since his attempt to take me on a date. I’d left the room only for testing, and he’d nearly dragged me out of bed to get me there. Today’s had been brutal.

  I’d been poked and prodded more than I ever had. I wasn’t sure I even had any more blood in me. But when Bev had her nurse come in saying it was time for an internal exam, I turned on the cold.

  No way was she going gynecologist on me. All I remembered was freezing the nurse, then Robo Nate busting through my ice and darts flying.

  And then I was here.

  One thing I realized while I was waking up—Robo Nate wasn’t going to help me escape this place.

  It was all a lie.

  But I didn’t know what the hell to do. How was I going to get us out of here? I didn’t dare try and escape and leave him here.

  The bed sagged behind me, and I wiped my eyes. I hated feeling this weak and helpless.

  The scent of cherry swarmed over me. Don’t tell me he brought me—

  “I brought you something,” he whispered.

  His hand came into sight and sure enough, he held a big bag of Red Vines. He’d been giving me all kinds of gifts the past few days. M&Ms, chocolate chip cookies, and now Red Vines.

  The tears surged onward. He knew my favorites just like My Nate. Robo Nate was trying to take care of me. Get to know me.

  “I’m sorry for what happened.”

  “Oh, you mean the little fact that I killed someone today?” Yeah, thanks for your sympathy. “I hate it here.”

  “I’m also sorry for taking you on that date. This… depression started directly after that.” He let out a long sigh. “I—Amanda—I wanted to make some memories with you.” Robo Nate settled behind me, and I tensed. “Everything I know is from someone else’s viewpoint. I’ve been watching, unable to experience anything for myself.”

  “Shut up,” I said, my voice cracking.

  “I love you, Amanda.”

  I couldn’t stop the sobs hearing that from Robo Nate. His voice was so much like My Nate’s. And when My Nate brought me Red Vines at the cabin. And…well, everything.

  “You remember…the college party…bumping into me,” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “So, My Nate… our meeting was planned? He never really loved me, did he? It’s been you?”

  Robo Nate’s hand came into sight again, but this time he pulled my hair back and leaned closer. “I wasn’t actively present when he first met you. Just watching—not even watching. More getting a sense of what he saw. Impressions. Feelings.”

  I brought my hand over my face and bawled. I couldn’t help it. This was a total and complete nightmare. Robo Nate said he loved me. Nate said he loved me when he’d broken through Robo Nate’s grip. But I doubted both of them.

  My Nate was literally created for me—from a freaking Petri dish. Then, to make things worse, a chip of some sort was implanted in his genius brain to make him want to have sex with me and make babies.

  As if my life couldn’t get anymore effed up.

  “Nate’s love for you is organic. He had no awareness of me or the grand design. My love for you is organic as well. From what I sensed through Nate and what I’ve seen of you since you’ve been in my care. I love you, Amanda.”

  “You’re programmed to love me. It’s not real.”

  “It is real.” The pillow sagged, and I felt his lips against the back of my head. “I might be a program inside a living being, but I learn things, absorb information, and I can come to my own conclusions. You’re selfless, you care about your family. You even regret killing that person today who you thought would hurt you.”

  “Of course I’m upset for killing someone. I never wanted to be a killer. This is their fault.” More tears spilled onto my pillow. “They made me into a killer.”

  “You’ve done what you’ve needed to survive.”

  “Robot,” I whispered, working desperately to fight the feelings his closeness triggered in me. He wasn’t My Nate, but right now, and the last few days, Robo Nate had been so sweet to me. Caring.

  So not like a robot.

  “We are one. There’s no separating us.” He wove his arm around my waist and edged closer to me. “Ever.”

  He weaseled his other arm under the pillow and tightened his hold until my back was flush against him.
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  I closed my eyes, wishing this was My Nate. If I kept my eyes closed and only listened to his voice and felt his gentle touch it would be My Nate.

  Sort of.

  “Allow me this one memory. This one chance to be close to you,” he whispered as his lips touched my neck. “You’re safe with me. We’re safe.”

  “Never safe.”

  “Tonight we are.”

  Warm breath tickled my neck. I grabbed his arm that was across my waist and hugged it, tucking his hand beneath my cheek. I needed the comfort of My Nate close to me, and he was there, somewhere. I focused on that. He was the one comforting me right now, holding me tight, and keeping me safe.

  I love you, Nate.

  Chapter 40

  Robo Nate held my hand as we made our way down the hallway from our apartment to some more testing. It’d been three days since I’d killed that nurse, and for the most part, Bev and her perky scientists had left me alone.

  Robo Nate had claimed we’d gotten the weekend off from work.

  Work.

  My head was spinning these last three days. Robo Nate hadn’t pressed the mating thing any further, which was surprising.

  His computer chip brain must have been picking up on my hints at relationship rules, though, because he got some flowers for me one day, more Red Vines another day, and yesterday chocolate.

  He might be worried about my depression. Hell, I was getting worried. I needed to snap out of this funk and figure a way out of here. With Nate—er—Robo Nate.

  Damn.

  Seriously. I thought my brain was going to cramp.

  My biggest worry was that My Nate hadn’t come through Robo Nate’s hold again. I was scared Robo Nate was up to something.

  “So what’s happening today? More blood? Running on treadmills? Freezing things?” I shook my head. I’d vowed to never cooperate and here I was, their little lab rat.

  “They want to know more about your healing.”

  “Lovely. So they can find a way around it when I get out of there and they come after me and hurt me?”

  He tugged me to a stop. “I will not allow them to hurt you, Amanda.”

  “Yeah. Whatever.” I shook my head. “They kind of do what they want, you know?”

  “As do you,” he said. “Which I find most interesting.”

  “You’re kind of doing what you want, too, you know?” I smiled. “Your programming. You’re going against it. You missed your window with me according to your fertility calendar—which is totally gross and unromantic, you know that, right?”

  He smiled. One of Nate’s smiles. It lit up his eyes like I love. Okay, if the left one wasn’t red, I would have thought Nate was back.

  “I am learning much from you. There will be another window in your cycle next month.”

  “Gross.” I shook my head. “I’m not staying here a month.”

  “We will leave soon.” He started walking again.

  “I would like to leave now, please.”

  “So you can find a way to get rid of me?” His voice went flat. “That is your plan, is it not?”

  Shit.

  “You can’t. The chip is so far embedded into the brainstem, it will not work. We are one. I’ve told you this many times, Amanda.”

  Yeah, he sure had. I didn’t want to believe it. Could I ever love Robo Nate like I loved My Nate? Every day he seemed to be more like My Nate. Maybe it was a matter of time before My Nate would bust through.

  We approached a door and he, with his free hand, reached for the knob. He stopped and smiled. “It will be okay, Amanda.”

  “Says you.”

  He turned the knob and pushed open the door.

  This was a new room, and they must have graduated from white, because at first glance I saw a couch and a large TV affixed to a sage wall.

  I stepped through the threshold and right into the fist of someone who had been standing to the side of the door. What the hell?

  I stumbled to the side, into the arms of another person.

  “Hey,” Robo Nate said. “This was—”

  “Duck,” I yelled.

  He didn’t listen, and it wasn’t a fist that got him. The guy had one of those police clubs. It cracked against Robo Nate’s cheek, and the sound reverberated against the walls surrounding us.

  “Nate!” I thrashed in the bear hug that encapsulated me. I crashed my heel against the guy’s shin, and he winced. I curled my fingers around the hands in front of me and turned on the cold.

  Three guys pounded on Robo Nate, kicking and punching him. Why wasn’t he fighting back? As the thought went through my brain, he jumped up and two of the guys flew to the side. One collided with the wall next to the door. The other against the two-way mirror.

  Son of a bitch.

  The grip around me finally loosened since I’d thrown a thick layer of frost over his hands. When my arms were free, I cranked my elbow back and buried it in the guy’s gut. I jumped forward, turned, then kicked him back. He slammed into the wall. Plaster rained down on him.

  Robo Nate’s grunt pulled my attention. The thugs seemed to be focusing on him. Nate grabbed the hands of one and spun, then released, and I froze him in midair. Not lethal freezing—well, I hoped—but enough to give him some serious frostbite.

  He thudded to the ground, ice crackling.

  Two guys approached Nate at once. I sprayed one, while the other got through. This time he held a knife.

  “What the hell is going on?” I yelled. “Nate, speed out of here.”

  Why was Bev attacking us?

  I kept one spraying hand trained on the guy, then my other shot ice bullets at the knife. It clanked against the floor. Nate turned and spin kicked the guy in the chest. Since my guy was frozen, I sprayed the two-way mirror to make it brittle, just before Nate’s guy made contact.

  Glass shattered everywhere. Yelps streamed in through the broken window. Bev bolted up from her chair carrying that damn clipboard again. I fired snowballs into the chests of three guys standing near Bev, but saved a nice stream of ice-cold water for her.

  Her squeal only fueled my resolve. She’d planned this attack to observe? My heart thrashed my insides. She was one sick bitch. I opened the flood of water coming through my palm and stepped toward her.

  A grunt behind me pulled my attention. Nate lay on the ground, shirt slashed open and blood gushing from a twelve-inch slice across his chest. The guy holding the knife stood over him.

  He looked almost scared.

  He was right to be. Anger exploded within my stomach, and I faced him. No curbing the lethality of my ice that time. He stepped back, hands up. “No. Wait.”

  I streamed ice at his face, effectively silencing him. Both hands pointed I sprayed. The force of it slammed him into the wall. My ice held him against it, freezing him in place. Looked like a spider had spun its web around him and hung him up to dry.

  “Nate,” I yelled. Several quick steps brought me to his side. “Oh God, Nate.”

  I threw up a shelter of ice around us thick enough to withstand a freaking tank, then I pressed my hands over his chest, just around the oozing blood. “Please. Nate. Wake up.”

  He coughed. Blood trickled down his face, and along the temple. I turned his head and saw more blood oozing out of his ear. “No. Nate!” Tears burned the back of my eyes as his body went limp, and his head tilted to the side.

  I almost puked.

  Focus, Mandy!

  I ripped open his shirt and pressed my hand on the bloody mess that was his chest. My healing ice wrapped around us, fusing us together. I leaned into him and sealed my lips to his. Heal, Nate. Heal!

  Within seconds it covered us both, easing my injuries as I focused on his. I couldn’t lose him. Even Robo Nate… He was still My Nate. Mine.

  I took care of those I loved.

  He flinched beneath me, and I broke off the kiss.

  His eyes shot open, and for a split second I saw only brown, no red pulsing. But then they slammed shut
again.

  “Nate,” I whispered. “Please.” I touched kisses over his cool, frosty cheek, as much as my healing ice cocoon would allow me to move. “Nate.”

  He jerked his eyes open and they stayed open this time. Relief flooded over me.

  Despite the red glow, I claimed his mouth with a bruising kiss. I hated seeing him hurt. It was My Nate’s body. My brain couldn’t wrap around that it wasn’t My Nate’s brain in control, all I knew was that we were both safe, healed, and together.

  He cupped the back of my head and held me tighter to him as he took the kiss deeper. He tasted like cinnamon, just like My Nate.

  A few seconds later he pushed away, slightly. “I will kill them.”

  “Shhh,” I said, petting his damp hair back, checking that his wounds were all clear. I called in the rest of my healing ice, but kept the shelter around us. His chest was healed, no sign of any other injuries.

  “They hurt what is mine. The exercise was only for me to be injured and you to heal.”

  “Wait, what? You agreed to be… injured? Why on earth would you do that?”

  “To learn more about your healing ice. It’s so different than the offensive weapon.”

  “For as smart as you are, you’re really stupid. They can’t be trusted, Nate.” I shook my head.

  “You called me Nate.”

  “I—”

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “You’re healed?”

  I coughed through the fact that I had called him Nate. It was just a slip. A sign of how much I missed My Nate. “Good as new.”

  He curled his arms around my waist. “You healed me.”

  “Of course I did.”

  “I’m Robo Nate yet you fought for me. Healed me.”

  I rested my head on his chest. “My Nate’s body.”

  “Still.” He brushed a kiss against my hair and hugged me tight. “Thank you.”

  Someone knocked on my ice, and Robo Nate flinched beneath me. Muffled noises came through, but the words were not understandable. I looked at Robo Nate and asked, “So, are you ready to leave yet?”

  He nodded.

  “Plan?” My heart thrashed with hope.

  “We’re on the second floor. There’s a window in the office across from here. We’ll go through that and jump.”