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“Good morning,” said Raven in a tone cool enough to send a shiver down Leith’s spine.
He struggled to match her tone, though he wasn’t sure he came across as aloof when he repeated the greeting. “I thought we could talk to Elle again. She might know more than she thinks, since she spent so much time with Patrick. Maybe we can mention the gambling ring, and that will help her connect some dots or something.”
She nodded, looking impassive as she walked beside him. She was clearly all business this morning, and it should’ve been a relief. Instead, he was slightly miffed at her ability to withdraw from him, though he certainly couldn’t blame her for doing so. He had literally dropped her on her ass and ran away. Since he’d already decided the best thing he could do was to maintain distance between them, it was ridiculous to feel put out that she was clearly thinking the same thing and acting on it.
He tried to clear the thoughts from his mind as they entered the medical center, projecting his voice as he called out, “Elle, are you here?”
There was no answer, so they moved deeper into the facility. With Raven beside him, mostly unspeaking, they checked the storage room, the two exam rooms, and the main room. That left only her quarters, so he turned in that direction and knocked on her door firmly. When he did so, the door crashed inward, landing awkwardly on the floor and partially on her bed.
With a curse, Leith move forward as Raven did the same, intent on picking up the door. “I had no idea it was in such a state of disrepair. She should’ve told maintenance.” He made a note to himself to send someone to fix her door later that day as he moved back to let Raven push past him. She lifted the door with seemingly little effort and placed it against the wall, bracing it awkwardly.
“There’s no way to put it back as it was, so you’ll need someone to fix this.” Those were the first real words she’d said to him that morning.
He nodded. “I wonder where Elle is? It’s early, but not so early that she shouldn’t be here.”
“Maybe she went to get breakfast?”
Leith shrugged, having no idea if her theory was correct. They would have to wait for Elle’s return, or else come back later.
Raven stood in Elle’s private quarters for a moment, her head slowly moving as she looked around the room. She stiffened abruptly and started walking toward the corner. As Leith watched, she skirted the bed before dropping down to her knees on the floor and bending over.
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be in there.”
Raven ignored his admonishment, and there was a scuffling sound, or perhaps a scraping noise better described the sound. A moment later, she sat up before getting fully to her feet, and when she turned to face Leith again, she was holding some kind of technology he had never seen. As she edged around the bed to come back to him again, his gaze didn’t waver from the equipment she held her hands. “What is it? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Raven set the machine on his lap as she shrugged. “I’m not sure what it is, but I know what it isn’t.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “What isn’t it?”
“It isn’t cyborg-made, and unless you have highly advanced technology somewhere that you’ve been hiding, I don’t believe it’s human either.”
Leith flipped it over carefully, not recognizing a single element of it. “We have nothing like this.”
“Then it must be something from the synthetics.”
He stiffened, both at the distaste in her tone and the idea that something from the synthetics was hidden in their enclave. “What does it do?”
Raven shrugged. “I’m not sure, but if I have a few hours, I might be able to figure it out.”
Leith was on the verge of telling her to take as long as she needed when Elle’s strident voice interrupted them. “What are you doing in my quarters?” At first, she looked outraged as she came closer, until her gaze fell on the machine sitting on Leith’s lap. Then she paled and swayed. “How did you find that? How did you know to look?”
“I detected unfamiliar technology,” said Raven unapologetically. “What is its function?”
Elle pursed her lips, falling silent.
Leith glared at the older woman. “You need to answer the question. Now.”
“I don’t answer to a cyborg,” said Elle with a scathing tone.
“Then answer me. What is this, and what are you doing with it?”
Elle crossed her arms over her chest, her defiant look and very obvious way she clamped her lips shut making it clear she had no intention of talking. Leith tried questioning her again, but got the same response. “If you don’t answer me, I’m sending you to the brig.”
She just shrugged at him, her gaze averted over his shoulder.
With a sigh, Leith used the comm system to send for security. When the three arrived, Elle went without protest, leaving Leith annoyed at her lack of cooperation and stymied by the function of whatever was on his lap.
“Do you have somewhere I can disassemble it and examine all the components?” asked Raven.
Leith nodded, tearing his gaze from the sight of security sweeping Elle from the medical center to look at Raven again. From the moment they had rendezvoused that morning, her eyes had been dull and lifeless, but now they sparkled with excitement. She was practically humming with curiosity, and it was like a punch to the solar plexus, reminding him viciously what he found so attractive about her and underscoring how difficult it was to pretend he had no interest. Realizing she was staring at him, clearly expecting an answer, he cleared his throat. “You can use my workshop. I’ll show you where it is.”
She nodded as she bent down to carefully lift the machine from his lap, holding it as though it was precious. Until they identified its purpose, he was more inclined to view it as a possible weapon, one that could explode at any moment. He shared her curiosity, but his main reaction to whatever it was was fear.
***
IF HE COULD HAVE PACED, Leith would have already worn a circuit in the stone floor as he waited for Raven to carefully disassemble each part of the machine and examine it thoroughly. She hadn’t spoken for more than an hour, but this time, he was certain it was because she was immersed in her work and not because she was making a concentrated effort to keep her distance from him emotionally. He was impatient for answers, but had been in her position more times than he could count. He knew his impatience and continuing questions wouldn’t do anything to hasten her examination. It would just distract her, and he wanted answers as quickly as possible.
In the interim, he watched her work, free to do so almost undisturbed, because her gaze rarely moved from what her hands were doing as she took apart the machine. He was enchanted by what he saw, almost enough to distract him from his worry about what she was taking apart, and if it might suddenly explode.
As she concentrated, an adorable wrinkle formed on her brow, right over her nose. When she was doing something delicate, she was likely to have her tongue between her teeth, with the tip just barely peeking out from the left corner of her mouth. She could go an unnaturally long time without blinking when she was deeply focused, allowing him an uninterrupted view of her eyes. He realized they were definitely brown, but there were golden undertones to the shade, and she had a greenish bronze rim on the outside of her iris.
It was a relief on two fronts when she made a sound of satisfaction. It allowed him to break the trance of staring at her, and he assumed it meant she had figured out the purpose, or at least something important. “What is it?”
She looked up, her gaze sparkling with excitement as her eyes locked with his. “It’s a tracking system. My guess is the synthetics use it to determine where cyborgs are. From the size of the transmitter, I don’t think it’s designed to be useful for more than a few kilometers in any direction, but this must be one of the ways they find us when we move around on the surface.”
Leith frowned. “Why would Elle have technology that can track cyborgs?”
She grinned. “It’s been modified, so it tracks synthetics. As far as I can tell, it can still determine the location of cyborgs as well, but someone spent considerable time altering the machine so that it picked up the presence of synths with plenty of warning as well.”
Leith eyed it uncertainly. “You sure it’s not a weapon, or a bomb?”
She nodded. “I’m positive. There are no components that could explode. It’s meant to be a portable tracking device, though it’s still kind of awkward and unwieldy.” She sounded scathing when she said that. “Any of the cyborgs could have made it much smaller and more efficient, so if this is the synths’ idea of technology, they’re clearly behind us.”
He ignored her comment, focusing instead on the machine, where her delicate hands still held two parts of it. “Can you put it back together the way it was to restore its function?”
She looked annoyed at the question. “Of course I can.”
Leith managed a small smile. “I’m not doubting your skill, but I just want to ensure it does what it’s supposed to.”
She nodded, looking mollified. “I’m still not sure why a human has this, or what her purpose was with it, but it could prove useful for the cyborgs and the humans if we can replicate it and modify it to be smaller.”
Leith’s stirring of excitement at the idea was tempered by the knowledge that he had no idea why Elle had it, and he still had to get an answer from her. With a sigh, he raked his hand through his short hair. “I need to talk to Elle again.”
Raven nodded, her tongue peeking out from the corner of her mouth again. “I can come with you if you give me a few minutes to finish reassembling the machine, or you can go without me.”
“I’ll wait.” While he wanted answers as quickly as possible, the idea of not having Raven beside him was unappealing. As she put together the machine with careful precision, he admitted to himself that no matter what efforts he took to appear aloof, he wasn’t going to be able to distance himself emotionally from Raven. He might still be able to avoid breaking her heart, but having her leave the enclave and return to the cyborgs, taking all possibility of what might have been with her, was certainly destined to break his.
***
IT WAS ALMOST A HALF-hour later before they arrived at the brig. Leith positioned himself in Elle’s line-of-sight as Raven stood behind him. He cleared his throat, trying to wake Elle, who was dozing or pretending to be. She didn’t move, and he let out an annoyed sigh. “Open the cell,” he called to the security officer, who was manning the check-in station at the end of the room.
A moment later, the Plexiglas door slid open, allowing him entry. He was aware of Raven walking behind him as they entered the cell, and he went straight to Elle. “Wake up, Elle. You have questions to answer.”
When she continued to ignore him, he leaned forward to shake her shoulder. As he did so, her slumped form rolled backward, revealing the awkward angle of her neck. He touched it without thought, wincing as he felt the unnatural bend of the bone pressing against skin. There was no pulse, and her skin was cool and clammy, indicating she had been dead for a while.
“She’s dead,” said Raven about the same time Leith turned his head to tell her that. “She has no pulse, and her body temperature is 96.8°, so she’s been dead for about an hour.”
Leith bellowed for the security officer, and the short woman came rushing toward him. “Are you aware she’s dead?”
Mae’s eyes widened, and she looked so shocked that he had a tough time believing she was that good of an actress. She shook her head frantically. “I had no idea. Lonnie, the other guard who was on post, took ill a while ago, and I was called in to fill in for him. I checked on her briefly, but I thought she was sleeping.”
“How long ago was that?”
“About forty-five minutes, sir.”
Leith let out a frustrated sigh. “Have someone collect her body and store it until we can figure out this mess.” At Mae’s nod, he turned to Raven. “Let’s talk to Lonnie.”
She nodded her assent as she walked beside his chair. He kept the pace brisk, but she had no trouble keeping up, as they exited the area housing the brig and moved down Corridor D. He didn’t know which room was Lonnie’s, but the labels on the door assisted. It didn’t take long to find the quarters “Higgins, Lonnie” shared with “Eife, Shamar.”
Leith pounded forcefully on the door, and they heard a groan inside. Whoever made the sound appeared to be in pain, and Leith overrode the security protocols to gain access. A moment later, the door opened with a hiss, though the hydraulics seemed to only function partially, because the door opened three-quarters and froze.
It was barely enough room for him to squeeze his chair through, and Raven slipped in ahead of him. He had to restrain the urge to call her back, wanting to protect her, as he reminded himself that she was a cyborg and could definitely take care of herself.
After wrestling his chair through the stuck entrance, he joined Raven at the nearest bed, where someone lay moaning and thrashing. He knew Lonnie from passing, so he leaned forward to put a hand on the man’s forearm. “Lonnie, are you all right?”
Lonnie’s eyes flickered open, and he groaned again as he clutched his stomach. “Hurts.”
Raven was studying him for a moment before she looked at Leith. “He doesn’t have a fever, but his heart rate’s accelerated.” She paused to palpate his abdomen, which made him scream. “I’m not a healer, but his bowel feels distended.” She knelt down, pressing her ear almost to Lonnie stomach, but not quite touching. “I can hear it rumbling. My guess is someone gave him a massive dose of laxatives.”
Lonnie was sweating. “That matches my symptoms,” he said with a groan. Abruptly, he rolled off the bunk and rushed as fast as he could to the restroom while hobbled over, clutching his stomach. Even with the door closed, they could hear the unpleasant sounds of him being ill less than a minute later.
Leith moved away, and Raven did the same. “I think we can rule out Lonnie as the murderer,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “Is there anything we can do for him?”
“He’ll have to remain hydrated, but I think the medication will just have to run its course. Whoever gave it to him wanted to ensure he was going to be incapacitated long enough to have a window of opportunity before his replacement arrived to man the station.”
Leith nodded his agreement with her assessment. He moved toward the door, scraping his chair lightly against it as he pushed his way through once more. When they were in the corridor, he took a deep breath and noticed Raven was doing the same.
“We don’t really have another medical person with Elle gone, but I’ll ask his roommate to keep an eye on him.” Leith was simply telling her his next step as he used the comm system to locate and call Eife. “I need you to stop what you’re doing and keep an eye on your roommate, Shamar.” Leith explained the situation as quickly as possible, leaving out the more delicate information, like Elle’s murder. It was obvious Lonnie’s roommate wasn’t overjoyed with the task before him, but he arrived a few minutes later without protest.
After that, Leith and Raven continued walking down Corridor D, before making a right turn that would take them back to Corridor A. “Now what do we do?” asked Raven.
Leith sighed. “I’m not sure. Elle was the last idea I had, and I thought I was grasping at straws by interviewing her again.”
“Does she have any friends who might know something about all this?”
Leith hesitated and then shrugged. “I can check with Gwen, who might have a better idea, but I don’t recall seeing Elle with anyone except Patrick and Boris on her off hours.”
Raven looked frustrated, running a hand through her blonde locks and disturbing the ponytail she’d used to confine it. “We could talk to Boris again, and maybe get more information from him.”
“I do have to deal with the gambling ring, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the technology we found in Elle’s quarters or Patrick’s act of sabotage and claim that others are involved.”
She sighed. “I imagine you’re right. I’m just not sure...” She trailed off abruptly as she looked around.
Leith froze in his chair as he realized he’d automatically gone to his quarters, and she had walked beside him, following him in without thought. They had been immersed in the task before them and their conversation, and he hadn’t realized he had brought her into his room until that moment. He cleared his throat as an awkward silence fell between them. “I’m sorry. I need you to go.”
She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “You need me to stay.”
Leith frowned up at her. “I know what I need.” He absolutely needed her to turn around and walk out right then before his resolve weakened. “Please leave.”
She shook her head, looking resolute. “I’m not here just as the liaison to the enclave and to help you figure out if there are humans trying to sabotage the peace treaty between us.”
His eyes narrowed as he glared up at her. “What are you then, some kind of spy?”
She laughed. “Of course not. I think I’m your mate.”
He was silent for a moment, literally stunned to the point where he couldn’t speak. “What the hell are you talking about?” He almost roared the question.
She took a step back, likely inadvertently, because she straightened her spine and reclaimed the distance a moment later. Then she took a step closer. “The Celestial Mates agent insisted I should be sent on this mission to facilitate his next match.”
Leith head started pounding. “I literally have no idea what you’re saying. I understand the words, but they make no sense.”
She smiled as she knelt down, which put her a few inches shorter than him. “I’m talking about Freydon Rote, the alien who brought Carrie to our time and matched her with General Davis.”
Leith shook his head. “Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She let out a sigh. “I thought everyone in the enclave knew the story.” As she spoke, her expression grew more animated.
He listened to the tale she wove, remaining skeptical of her claim that some alien who existed outside of time and space had taken Carrie Morgan from Earth’s past to bring her to their present so she could have a future with the cyborg general. When she was done reciting the story, he shook his head and laughed. “It’s a nice fairytale, but completely unbelievable.”
She glared at him, looking affronted. “I’m not lying to you.”
Sensing he was offending her, he tried to tread delicately. Common sense dictated they still had to work together, and it wouldn’t be good to offend her to the point where he alienated her completely—even if it would ensure they remained emotionally distant. “I’m not saying you’re lying, but perhaps you’ve been told a story by someone else. Like one of those old fairytales.”
She was still glaring at him as she looked at her comm, pressing buttons on the wrist device. A moment later, she thrust the screen into his field of vision, forcing him to look at the image there. His mouth dropped open when he saw a peach gelatinous blob with eyes. So far, it matched Raven’s description.
When the alien started speaking, still with no visible mouth, his words reinforced everything Raven had claimed. The only difference was, Freydon Rote’s recording didn’t specifically identify her and Leith as the next pairing. He seized on that, pushing aside his confusion and a dart of hope. “He doesn’t say anything about you and me.”
She shrugged. “No, but I felt it the moment I saw you. Do you feel it too?”
Leith didn’t want to lie to her, so he looked away. “Nothing can come of it.”
She let out a sound of frustration. “Why not? You aren’t with anyone else, are you?”
He shook his head as he stared at her, aghast at the question. “How can you even ask that? Look at me.” He waved a hand down his body, which encompassed his chair. “I can’t have a normal physical relationship with any woman.”
Her eyes widened, and her gaze darted to his lap. “Where does the paralysis start?”
“Just above my waist, and all the way to my toes. I’m not involved with anyone, and I won’t be, because I can’t give you or any woman what she needs.”
Raven shook her head. “That’s not true. Relationships are about more than just sex.”
He scoffed. “You say that now, but you’d soon change your mind when you realized how much of our relationship would be missing from what I can’t give you. I can’t give you an orgasm, and I sure can’t give you children.”
She shook her head, her expression gentle. “Cyborgs don’t have children. Our resources are carefully allocated, so we don’t want to increase our population. And there are other ways to have an orgasm besides penetrative sex. I’d be more interested in the emotional closeness than the physical closeness.”
He shook his head. “It’s easy to say now, but—”
She put her finger against his lips, forcing him to fall silent. “It’s no different from the life I live now. The other cyborgs treat me like a little sister, or a child they have to protect. They don’t think I know, but I do. Something went wrong during my conversion process, and I’m not functioning at full cyborg capacity. They treat me like a child, not a woman with needs. I know they’re protective, and it’s because they care about me, but none of the cyborgs come to me for their physical needs, and I’m certain if I approached any of them, they would just let me down gently. I’m used to taking care of myself.”
His eyes widened as he grasped her meaning. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect just the way you are.”
She smiled, practically glowing under the praise. “I lack the killer instinct that most cyborgs have. Technically, it’s a flaw, but I’m kind of glad that I don’t see everything as a battle. I’m drawn to you, and if you feel the same way, there’s no reason to deny this thing between us. We can have emotional and physical intimacy even if we can’t have sex. Please don’t close yourself off from the idea just to protect me from what you think I need or want. All I want is you, Leith.”
He closed his eyes when her fingers ghosted down his cheek before her palm cupped his face. When her other hand curved around the other side of his cheek, he closed his eyes tighter as she drew closer. Her breath wafted against his skin just seconds before her lips touched his, and he ignored his first instinct, which was to jerk away.
Instead, he remained still as she kissed him. It was a gentle, tender kiss, and it demanded nothing from him. Yet he was moved to give her everything as he deepened the kiss, pinning his hands on her shoulders as he leaned forward slightly to reposition their mouths.
As the kiss deepened, his heart raced in his ears, and he ached for her. He might not be able to have a physical reaction below the waist, but the rest of his body was inflamed for her, and he acted instinctively as he leaned forward to urge her from the floor and onto his lap.
Leith kept a hand around her waist, her mouth still fused to his, as he navigated the chair to take them to the bed. When they reached it, he gently pushed her off his lap, and she rolled on to it. Using his upper body strength, Leith lifted himself out of the chair and onto the bed to join her, pressing his body on hers as he pinned her to the bed.
She didn’t seem to mind being pinned and made no effort to resist or pull away. Her sigh of pleasure urged him to keep going, and he deepened the kiss even more, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth to taste every inch of her. He could count on one hand the number of women he had kissed, and it had never been like this before.
Something about Raven seemed to guide him, and he instinctively knew what to do. She moaned and thrashed against him, clearly needing more, and he let one of his hands drift down her body to push aside the black shirt to reveal her breasts. As he continued to feast on her mouth, his fingers moved over her nipple, alternating between tugging and gently circling.
Her arm went around him, her fingers digging in to his lower back as her other hand stroked his chest. He winced slightly at the sound of rending fabric when she grew impatient with the buttons and forced her hand inside an opening to be able to stroke his skin. He decided he didn’t care about the loss of the shirt since it allowed her free access to his body.
As her hands roamed freely over him, invigorating nerve endings in a way he’d never experienced before, he moved his own hand lower. She tensed slightly for a moment as his fingers breached the waistband of her pants, but her mouth never stopped moving under his, and when she arched her hips and made a breathless moan against his lips, it was all the encouragement he needed to continue delving lower.
His fingers surged into her slit, tangling in the thatch of curls he found there as he sought out the slick heat nestled between her thighs. He might not have had a lover before, but he understood biology, and he grinned when she moaned as his fingers found her clit, circling with light pressure.
Her head tipped back, and her mouth broke from his. She wriggled and arched beneath him as he fingered her wet heat. Leith buried his face against her neck, nibbling lightly at the column of her throat before he started sucking her flesh. Each time she thrust against his hand, it increased his own excitement. He could feel the pleasure building in him, and it mimicked her own, he was certain. As her folds tightened around him, and her sheath rhythmically squeezed the fingers buried inside her, a rush of euphoria broke over him.
It wasn’t an orgasm, but it was definitely a release, heightened with pure male satisfaction at giving Raven such intense pleasure. As she screamed his name, her thighs tight, and her channel convulsing around his fingers, he let out his own sound of satisfaction, feeling possessive and content all at once.
He held her as her body shuddered, kissing her through the aftermath until she was practically boneless beneath him. At that point, he moved away from her mound and put his hand on her waist instead, holding her against him. His heart was still thundering, and he was certain hers was too.
“You were wrong,” she said in a drowsy voice.
He arched a brow as he shifted slightly to look down at her. Her eyes were half-mast, and she appeared on the edge of sleep. “About what?”
Her lips twitched at the corners. “You said you couldn’t give me an orgasm. You are so wrong about that.”
He chuckled, still feeling slightly smug at leaving her in such a state. “Let’s just say I’m happy to be wrong in this instance.”
“Me too. Absolutely thrilled that you are...” She trailed off with a yawn as she snuggled closer. Within a few minutes, he could hear her even breathing that indicated she had fallen asleep, and pure contentment flooded him at holding her in his arms while she was in such a vulnerable state.
She trusted him to keep her safe, and he had seen to her needs, both physical and emotional. He still had reservations about the relationship, and the fear lurked in the back of his mind that she’d get tired of not having a full physical relationship with him, but with her in his arms, he was certain he wouldn’t be able to let her go.
If the relationship ended, it would be because she walked away. It would absolutely shatter him in the process, but the possibility of happiness far outweighed the fear of losing her. She might be able to completely break him into pieces at some point, but at the moment, he’d never felt so complete or whole in his life, even before the accident had rendered him paralyzed and confined to the chair. He was sure her conclusion was correct—Freydon Rote intended for them to be mates.