Taunting Krell

  Her mouth opened, she nearly told him the truth of who she was, but sudden pain jabbed her brain. She winced. “I can’t tell you that. It was a long while ago.”

  He glared at the mirror wall. “Send him in. He’ll make her talk.”

  Cyan wanted to curl into a ball. She really did hate torture but this would be extra hellish since she refused to fight back. Usually she’d kick someone’s ass for putting a finger on her. In training she’d beaten on any instructor stupid enough to try hands-on techniques of how to resist torture. Her hands fisted. No matter what, she had to keep her cool.

  The door opened and she knew her suffering would begin. She turned her head to check out the cyborg intent on making her scream “mercy”. A tall gray-haired cyborg walked in. His hair made him appear older, the color of it aging him, but no wrinkles marred his handsome features. His strangely beautiful gaze held her attention captive. They were very pale blue with icy white specks in them and she wondered if he might be blind until they focused directly on her. He frowned.

  “Look, sweetheart. I like you. You’ve got guts. Just tell Onyx everything he wants to know. You don’t want to meet Krell. He’s…cranky.” The cyborg with the familiar voice sighed. “To put it mildly.”

  Onyx snorted. “That’s being kind, Sky.”

  Sky glanced at the other male before looking back at Cyan. “He retired but the two males who usually interrogate prisoners are unavailable. One took time off after joining a family unit and the other one is cooling his heels inside a holding cell because he allowed his hatred for humans to make him screw up. Talk to me. When and where did you talk to another cyborg? Are cyborgs still being held in captivity on Earth?”

  “As far as I know there aren’t any cyborgs left in Earth Government’s custody. I can assure you, if I had known about any of them, they wouldn’t be there. I’d have helped them escape.”

  That seemed to shock the pale-eyed cyborg. “Why would you do that?”

  “Would you believe me if I told you I’m pro-cyborg? I think what was done to your people had to be one of the biggest injustices in Earth’s history.”

  “When did you speak to a cyborg? Where?” Sky took a threatening step toward her.

  She tried to think of a way to answer without her brain seizing up. Anger at her father simmered yet again. He’d died just over a decade before but she still carried resentment over what he’d done to her. She had to forgive him overall though. He’d saved her and made her the way he had to keep her alive.

  “It was a long time ago. Those cyborgs escaped Earth.”

  “I want a year, all the details, and where did they go?”

  “I have no idea where they ended up. I thought they’d died until I ran into you on Belta Station.”

  “Year? Location on Earth?” Sky refused to give up.

  She opened her mouth but another hot jab of pain sliced through her brain from even thinking about answering him when she realized she’d have to tell him who she once had been. “I can’t.”

  The cyborg with the eerie yet beautiful eyes crouched before her but kept enough distance that he wasn’t within kicking reach of her boots. “Give me the year and the circumstances. Were they prisoners? Where were they held? How did they escape?”

  The pain grew worse and her stomach pitched as memories filled her head. She locked down her emotions and sealed her lips together. She couldn’t answer. Some of the agony eased after she got control of the urge to blurt out the truth. Seconds ticked into minutes.

  “Bring Krell in,” Sky muttered toward the glass wall to whoever stood behind it. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, sweetheart. I’m a lover, not a fighter. I can’t stay here to watch this go down. It’s against my nature to see someone hurt a woman.” He straightened and met her gaze. “This is your last chance. Will you answer my questions?”

  “I can’t,” she whispered honestly.

  “Have it your way.” He paused in front of the door that slid then he disappeared around the corner.

  Cyan braced for the worst. She’d never actually seen how they’d trained cyborgs when they’d been in captivity but she’d heard the rumors of what had been done to them. Some of the most brutal soldiers of Earth’s Government had been instructors. Of course they mostly showed cyborgs how to torment someone by doing the same to them. The sound of boots striking metal made her tense. Her attention focused on the open door. Whoever approached seemed angry by the way he stomped. The sound stopped.

  “I don’t want to do this.” The harsh, raspy male voice terrified Cyan.

  “Sorry, man,” Sky answered, “it’s not my call. She won’t talk and she knows something about cyborgs. We need that information. She’s refused to tell us when and where she had contact with our kind and we need dates to see if we can track them down. She’s a soldier from Earth Government if it helps. You should have seen her fight. She looks fragile but she shoved Onyx’s nuts into his stomach and took Ice to his knees and held a knife against his throat. She’s probably one of the best fighters I’ve seen so watch your crotch and throat.”

  The scary voice growled. “Soldier? That helps. That means she’s the enemy.”

  That deep, raspy voice sent chills down Cyan’s spine. He sounded terrifying, as if he weren’t a cyborg but more of a demon. His cold proclamation that she was the enemy didn’t bode well for her. She had a bad feeling he had learned a lot from the brutal soldiers who had once had them under their thumbs.

  The cyborg who walked into the room had long, free-flowing black hair to his waist. He wore all black leather and his skin was a pale, lustrous silvery shade. She looked at his face. Scars marred his cheek in two places and there were a few more along his jawline. She finally met his gaze. Shock tore through her while she stared into icy blue eyes. Her breath froze inside her lungs and her heart accelerated so fast it felt as if it would pound out of her rib cage.

  She would have collapsed onto the floor if she hadn’t been sitting. Her entire body quivered. The cyborg moved into the room enough for the door to close behind him.

  “This is Krell,” Onyx informed her. “Humans put those scars on him. I’d stop gawking at him if I were you. He gets angry when anyone gawks. Krell, this is Cyan. At least that’s what she said her name was when we captured her on Belta Station. She claims Earth Government sent her there to investigate the attack on it.”

  Cyan wasn’t sure exactly how it happened but one second she sat and the next she stood. She couldn’t take her gaze off Krell. That is his name, she thought, still in shock. Krell. It sounded so mean to her, harsh. She stumbled toward him. His generous mouth curved downward in a grimace and his face hardened into a dangerous expression at her approach but she moved slowly enough not to seem threatening. At least she hoped she didn’t appear that way.

  He stood at least six foot seven or so. Due to her five-foot-three height, he towered over her when she paused just inches from him. Her hand shook when it slowly rose. He held still, watched her with contempt and anger, but didn’t strike out at her. She hesitated before her fingertips brushed the scarred side of his face. She couldn’t miss the way his nose flared and the icy blue of his eyes seemed to darken more.

  “Admiring the handiwork of your fellow soldiers?” His brutal, rough tone made her jerk. Pure rage emanated from him. He suddenly gripped her wrist but he didn’t tear her hand away.

  “Watch her,” Onyx urged. “She’s probably going for your eyes.”

  The grip on her wrist tightened painfully but he still didn’t yank her hand away. She trembled hard as she continued to gently stroke his warm, scarred skin. Tears filled her eyes and her other hand opened to press against the leather at his stomach. He growled at her again, gripped that wrist too, but still didn’t push her away. His frown deepened and it seemed that the level of his anger did too as he glared down at her.

  Cyan opened her mouth to try to speak but she had to swallow first. She blinked back the tears just to see him clearly. The pain of his grip r
egistered but it didn’t matter. She licked her lips and nearly fell against him when her legs threatened to give out.

  “You’re really here. You made it. I thought for sure you’d died.”

  The cyborg glanced away from her to shoot an annoyed look toward Onyx. “Is she suffering from head trauma? This isn’t the reaction I expected. Most humans would scream and cower from me.”

  “She’s feisty and a trickster. Sky taught me those words. She’s deceptively clever and tends to attack when you least expect it. Watch your nuts. She’ll target them.”

  A growl rumbled from Krell as he glowered back at her from his impressive height. “Do it and I’ll snap both your wrists.”

  “I remember you,” she breathed. “You’re alive.” Tears slipped down her face. “I can’t believe it. Did Mavo survive? Is he here somewhere? He said you were his friend. I thought the guards had killed you when I saw your bloody body sprawled on that holding-cell floor before the escape.”

  His features paled and his eyes widened. Pain shot through her body when her ass connected with the floor. It took her seconds to realize he’d shoved her away from him. She looked up, had to push back strands of her long black hair to see him, and flinched over the pure rage in his icy glare, which was directed at her. Her heart wrenched at his hatred.

  She shouldn’t have approached him. She’d just been so stunned at seeing a familiar face. Chances were good if this male had survived then Mavo had as well. She cleared her throat, stayed on the floor, and assessed her injures. There’d be some bruises on her butt but he hadn’t damaged her beyond that.

  “Who are you?” Krell shook from fury. “What do you know about me or Mavo?”

  “What is going on?” Onyx gasped. “What does this mean?”

  “Who are you?” Krell advanced quickly, grabbed Cyan before she could react and viciously hauled her to her feet. Her back slammed into a wall and she found her body pinned by the enraged cyborg. One hand wrapped around her throat while his other arm hooked around her waist to hike her up his body until they were face level. He snarled at her. “How do you know that name?”

  Her mouth opened but she cried out from the stabbing pain her brain suffered when she attempted to answer him. The hold on her throat eased but she felt his big body against hers. She reached up slowly to cup his face. She stared into his eyes, trying to convey that she wasn’t the enemy.

  “I’m a friend.”

  She tried to frantically work around the conditioning she’d endured for three years. Her father’s team had really messed up her head, programmed her brain with the help of technology to keep her from saying too much. But as she stared at the cyborg inches from her face she hoped he’d be able to figure out what she couldn’t say, as impossible as it seemed. She was grateful her father had never learned how close she’d been to her cyborg guard and he hadn’t used Mavo’s name as a pain trigger.

  “Who are you?” he roared. “How do you know of Mavo?”

  More tears slid down her face. “I’ve been conditioned. I can’t tell you how I know him but I do. I’m his friend.”

  Confusion crossed Krell’s features and some of his anger eased away before coldness swept his handsome face. “You somehow accessed computer records from our time on Earth. There had to be pictures of us with detailed information of our cyborg associations.” He growled low inside his throat. “Stop messing with my mind. I will kill you. This isn’t a path you want to take to spy for your government. We have no friends from Earth.”

  Heartache stabbed at her chest that he didn’t believe she meant no harm. “It’s not a trick. It’s technology. I’ve been conditioned to never speak about it. I’ll go into convulsions if I try.” Her headache grew worse, she knew she bordered on blacking out and had to stop thinking and talking about the past.

  “Answer me. Are you here to spy for Earth? Are they aware of our existence? Did they somehow extract information from Zorus that he wasn’t aware of when they captured him? Are my people in danger? Is a military detail on its way to this section of space to hunt for us?” He snarled the words. “You’re a soldier. Are you their scout? Did they order you to memorize files in case you found us, to make us trust you?”

  She stared into his eyes and refused to answer. She couldn’t. The headache started to dissipate, barely, and she breathed easier. The cyborg might be angry but at least she remained conscious.

  “No,” she whispered. “Please don’t hurt me, Krell. I need to see Mavo.”

  He roared loudly, enough to make her ears ring. She gasped when he spun and her body was airborne. She hit the floor on her side, rolled into a wall, and lay there stunned.

  “No!” Onyx yelled.

  “She’s a danger to our people and she just threatened Mavo.” Krell snarled the words, pushed at the other cyborg and glared at her with murder glinting in his dark eyes.

  Cyan lifted her head, ignored the pain the impact with the floor had sent throughout her body, and watched as Onyx tried to hold the bigger cyborg back to stop him from attacking her. Cyan knew, by the sheer magnitude of rage twisting his scarred features, that Krell would hurt her if he got his hands on her. She swept her gaze across the room.

  She’d struck the chair when she’d been thrown. It had broken the metal leg off and she reached for the broken piece. It hurt to struggle to sit up but she rested her back against the wall. Krell shoved Onyx aside and snarled at her. She saw her impending torture in his chilling blue eyes. He noticed her weapon, his fists balled, and it became obvious he intended to finish her off.

  She stared at him, hesitated from the dread of what would come, but still stabbed her thigh as hard as she could. The agony made her scream. She nearly blacked out from the intense, fiery pain and her hand released the metal. She writhed from how much it hurt to have the jagged, broken chair leg impaled in the top of her thigh.

  Shock made both cyborgs freeze where they stood. Onyx recovered first. “Medic!” he yelled. “Get a medic!”

  Cyan tore her gaze from the stunned Krell to stare at her thigh. Blood spread across the floor under her leg. The black material of her pants looked wet where the metal had breached and she had to fight tears from the intense pain. She peered up at Krell.

  “Why did you do that?” Krell still gaped at her. “I wouldn’t really have killed you.”

  The door opened and a cyborg rushed in carrying a white first-aid kit. He dropped to his knees, cursed, and tore open the box to access the medical equipment inside.

  “This is your idea of getting answers?” The new cyborg sounded outraged. “You hit an artery.”

  A cold feeling numbed Cyan as she leaned back, refusing to look away from Krell. He watched her grimly. She knew the moment the medic gripped the metal and tore it free. She clenched her teeth, hissed out and knew the bleeding grew worse. She had a big hole in her leg.

  “I didn’t do it,” Krell rasped. “She did. Very smart but this won’t stop the interrogation, human. It will only delay it until you are treated.”

  Material tore as the medic ripped her pants open to expose the wound. He dumped liquid over her skin to clear the blood and stop the bleeding so he could inspect the wound. He gasped loudly.

  She shifted her gaze when his head jerked up to stare at her. His darker gray, dusky skin turned a sickly shade of ashy, grayish white. She looked down but knew what she’d see—a ragged wound in her flesh and shiny metal where white bone should have been.

  “This can’t be,” the medic whispered.

  “What?” Onyx stepped closer.

  The medic reached out to suddenly grab Cyan’s face to pull her attention to him. “You look human. Your skin is flesh colored.”

  “She is human,” Krell rasped.

  Both Cyan and the medic turned to stare at Krell.

  “No, she’s not. At least not all the way. She’s…” The medic’s voice faded to silence.

  Cyan watched Krell move closer, couldn’t look away from him, and knew the moment he saw wha
t the medic had. He jerked his shocked gaze to hers.

  “You’re a cyborg?”

  “Not quite,” she whispered, in too much pain to do more. “But close. I’m not a spy and I’d never hurt cyborgs.”

  Krell reeled backward until his back hit the wall. His blue eyes were wide, stunned, perhaps even a little horrified, and Cyan watched him. The medic seemed to recover, tending to the painful wound. He’d stopped the bleeding and Cyan tried hard to ignore how much it hurt as he began to cauterize some of the damage that would start bleeding again quickly once the liquid that froze the blood started to thaw.

  Onyx cursed before he rushed outside the room. The long-haired cyborg with the icy-blue eyes kept her attention. He was her link to Mavo and the only familiar face she’d seen since running into cyborgs.

  Chapter Three

  “What is she?”

  The cyborg council, at least ten of them, stood in the hallway outside Cyan’s room where she sat handcuffed by one wrist to a med bed. They were visible through the open door and she could hear them.

  The doctor hesitated. “I’ve never seen anything similar to her, to be honest. She’s mostly organic but her bones are made of a metallic substance that isn’t the same as our enhanced bones. Her rib cage is…” The doctor sighed. “It’s not just bones. The interior is enclosed to totally protect her heart and lungs. I’d guess it’s an alloy that is resistant to weapons. Her tissues appear completely human until you see how quickly she’s healing. I took a sample to study but it appears totally normal. No human could have survived having their bones removed to be replaced with what she has in there. I can only assume they made the frame and had to grow tissue around it. It’s miraculous technology.”

  “Does she have implants?”

  “Yes,” the doctor stated. “Four inside her brain but they were near impossible to detect through whatever material they used for her skull. When you scan it, it reads as if she has a totally human brain. It appeared too perfect though so I managed to wire in a tiny camera to go under the skull at the base of her neck. That’s when I noticed the shadows of the devices. From where they are located I’d say two of them are linked to her speech and thought areas. I have no idea what the other two are for or what they might do. It’s not a mapped part of the brain that I’m knowledgeable about. They aren’t placed where I’ve ever seen them. On scans you’d swear she has human bones but she doesn’t. When I closed her thigh I was able to get a good look at the metal. I didn’t take a sample because it might have crippled her. The only way to do it is if I removed an inch of the material and I’m not even certain what would cut through it. I may have had to take the entire leg at a joint. I refuse to do that.”