“Oh God, oh God,” she groaned. “I want you so bad.”
“Not yet, little human,” he growled. “But soon.”
He used her body to stroke himself, thrusting between her cheeks as he squeezed them together around his cock. He felt his own orgasm building as her pussy clenched against his shaft.
“Oh fuck, Sysko, I want you,” she groaned.
He growled as he climaxed, his cum spraying over her ass and back. As it dripped down her spine to her neck and all over her beautiful tanned skin. He rubbed it into her pussy and continued to stroke her, making her come again and again as he pushed his semen into her holes. She writhed with passion and pleasure under his touch as he rubbed his white seed all over her. Finally, she turned over on her back and stared up at him, beckoning him to come hold her on the bed.
“I’m ready,” she said. “Why are you holding back?”
“I can't do it without claiming you,” he said. “Your body is still so small. Your human form must transform enough to take my size without injury.”
“I can take it,” she said with a giggle. He ran his hand down her belly and slipped a finger inside her.
“You are far too tight. I don't want to hurt you.”
“I think you're far too cautious,” she said, running her finger down his chest.
“That is quite a change of tune,” he chuckled.
“Now, I know I belong to you,” she said. “Now, I can hear my dragon calling out to me. She has emerged from her shell and is now toddling across the back of my mind. I can see her as clear as day. Her skin is night sky black, spangled with stars and her eyes are black and starry like yours. I am a space dragon like you, Sysko. When I transform, will I also be able to fly freely through space?”
“Indeed, you will,” he said holding her close. “But to ensure the health and safety of you and your dragon, we must take this slowly. I will protect you at the expense of my own life.”
“What would happen to me if something happened to you?”
“Now that the thrall has begun, we need each other now to survive.”
“Are you afraid?” she asked him.
“Needing each other is exactly how we should be. I don't regret a thing.”
“I only wish that you could take me now and we no longer had to wait.”
“I want the same thing, my beloved. But we must have patience. Soon, you will be ready, and we can complete the transformation process. After I bite you and claim you, then you will be able to transform into a dragon for the first time. I can see your human body is already changing. Your hips are wider. Your breasts are larger and you have already grown in height.”
“Have I?” she asked, looking down at herself.
“It is only a slight change as of yet, but I can see it with my dragon senses.”
“I didn't notice at all. But I've always wanted to be taller so that's just a bonus,” she laughed.
“I'm glad you approve. I certainly approve of these new curves on your petite little body,” he said with a growl.
His inner dragon was in complete agreement and wanted nothing more than to claim the curvy little human right now. He had to tamp down his own enthusiasm and be the voice of reason in all of this. Soon they would be together, two dragons in love and fully bonded, having come together over the vast reaches of space. He held her close as they drifted off to sleep.
In the night, Violet grew lonely and came into their bed as they slept and snuggled in at their feet. As strange as Sysko felt, it was as if he had found his family. His human mate and her creation. It was a funny little family, but it was his. He couldn't be happier. He wouldn’t change it for anything in the universe.
Chapter 21
Freda walked into her apartment with Violet under her arm, after spending another blissful day with Sysko. Her head was in the clouds and she felt like she was walking on air. Every day she spent with Sysko got better and better. Not to mention the extraordinary feeling of the dragon emerging inside her. She sat Violet on the couch and changed her nanotech outfit into pajamas before washing her face and climbing into bed. Violet walked into her bedroom and jumped on the bed, snuggling at her feet like a dog.
“Is it okay if I sleep in here, Mommy?” Violet asked.
“Of course it is, dear.”
It was strange to be so attached to a robot, but at the same time, it felt completely perfectly natural. She fell asleep and dreamed of Sysko and the emerging sensation at the back of her mind. The dragon inside her was coming to life. In her dream, she could see it visually and give it a name. It was herself, yet it wasn't. It was something more. Still so small and immature but growing with each passing moment.
In the morning, she went to school. Instead of bringing Violet with her, she left her at home and left the schematics in a hole under the carpet in her bedroom. She didn't want anyone to know about her discovery so she spent all day re-creating a machine that looked exactly like Violet. On her way out of the building, Dr. Higgins stopped her.
“It's you that was mated to the dragon, wasn't it?” Dr. Higgins asked.
“What makes you say that?” Freda asked, clutching her backpack.
“The description of the girl in the news sounds like you. You're driving a new sports car and you're doing suspicious things with school property.”
“Suspicious?” she asked, growing more nervous.
“I checked the computer program for your project, and I know that it's been changed. What are you up to, Freda?” he asked.
“I'm just trying to finish my dissertation during a very difficult time. My parents went missing in New York. I've been taking care of my sister this whole time.”
“I know you're lying,” he said, his eyes glowing red.
Her mouth dropped. It had been there before. She’d just thought it was exhaustion.
“What are you talking about?” she said, backing away.
It was dark outside and there were no students anywhere nearby on campus. He grabbed her arm and squeezed, his strength too great for a man his age.
“Stop it,” she growled. “You're hurting me.”
“Don't worry, Freda,” he said, his voice coming out eerily robotic. “Once we're done with you, you will never hurt again.”
“They've gotten to you, haven't they?” she screamed as he pulled her down the hall.
“You will never get away with this. Sysko will see you leaving the planet.”
“Oh, but we won't need to leave the planet, dear,” he said, pulling her into the parking lot and shoving her into a van.
There were several other faculty members in the vehicle with them. They all had the same glowing red eyes. And now that she looked closer she could see that there were tiny implants in Dr. Higgins ears. One of the men in the back of the van, Dr. Pacer from the English department, pulled her wrist com off and dropped it in a vat of acid. It disintegrated into nothing and her last hope for rescue was gone. They started the car.
“Where is the robot?” Dr. Higgins asked.
“You'll never find her.”
“We’ve have already sent agents to your apartment.
Violet and the schematics for the Draxos’ firewalls were both in her apartment. It would be so easy for them to find them. The van started and they began to drive away. Fear gripped her heart and throbbed in her chest. Sysko was supposed to come pick her up at her apartment in just a few minutes. She prayed he made it to there before the cyborg agents.
“Where are you taking me?” she screamed as they drove down the streets of Boston.
“You are going to be upgraded,” Dr. Higgins said. “We need minds like yours in the collective.”
“I'll never become one of you!”
“That's what they all say. Myself included. Until I saw the error of my thinking. Now I’m much better off,” Dr. Higgins said.
One of the cyborg professors shoved a wadded-up cloth into her mouth and covered it with duct tape so she could no longer scream. They duct taped he
r hands behind her back and drove who knows how far before stopping. It must have been at least sixty miles, and she knew that by this time Sysko had either made it to her apartment or the agents had taken Violet and the firewall schematics.
If they found the schematics for the Draxos firewalls, all would be lost. And it would be all her fault. They parked and pulled her out of the van and into a small warehouse. They crunched over the gravel of the dimly lit parking lot and walked through a metal door. Inside, a dozen cyborgs worked on “upgrading” several other students from her school. Freda screamed under her gag. They were drilling into people's heads. Bloodcurdling screams filled the space as they cut into a young man’s skull without any anesthesia.
“No, no!” she screamed under her gag, but it just came out as a muffled moan. They threw her into a chair and tied her down.
“If this one is the mate of the dragon leader, she is worth more to us intact than upgraded,” one of the cyborgs said to Dr. Higgins.
“She has the information we need inside her brain. Even if we can’t find it at the apartment,” Dr. Higgins said.
“Her mate intervened at her apartment,” the second cyborg said.
Freda sighed with relief knowing that Sysko had found Violet and the schematics before the cyborgs arrived.
“All of our agents are dead. And the data we needed is lost to us.”
“We still have her brain. I see no reason to wait on upgrading her,” said Dr. Higgins.
“I concur,” said the other cyborg. “You may proceed.”
The technician who had drilled the man's skull and implanted his first cybernetic device, turned on the drill and aimed it at Freda. She screamed at the top of her lungs. Even through her gag, the sound echoed against the walls of the small warehouse. The drill grew closer and closer to her temple. Her eyes bugged out, and her body broke out in a cold sweat.
She tried to rip her hands out of the bounds, but they held her tight. If she were to die, so would Sysko, and all would be lost. Who else would lead the Draxos space navy with such resolve and bravery? The fate of the entire galaxy hung in the balance as Freda tried to keep herself from fainting.
She saw darkness encroaching around the sides of her vision as her heart whacked against her chest. The drill grew closer until she could no longer contain her anxiety and she began to fade. At that very moment, the door of the warehouse burst open.
That's when the lights finally went out and Freda fainted.
Chapter 22
There is no sign of the cyborg threat in Slovenia, Admiral,” the away team leader told him from the screen.
“Is it possible that they slipped through the boarder somehow?” Sysko asked.
“It is possible, Admiral, but we could use more men on the ground.”
“I'll do one better than that,” Sysko said. “I will come down there myself.
Sysko's ability to search out cyborgs was legendary. He went to his speeder and climbed inside, hurrying toward the small country where the cyborgs had been spotted. Meeting up with the away team, he got the full details on their search.
He set his scanners for any sign of cyborg activity and began to fly over the country, back and forth until he was convinced there was no activity there. He had learned to suss out even the slightest blip on his monitors over his many years of hunting cyborgs, but there was nothing in the entire country.
He began a wider search across the area after that. When he was convinced there was nothing anywhere near there, he started back to Boston for his date with Freda. He instructed his away team to start on an increased perimeter over Europe and Asia and set several more teams on the mission
Sysko arrived at Freda’s apartment just in time to find half a dozen men in black trench coats busting through her apartment door. He slid his hand over his wrist com, activating his nanotech laser sword, and rushed at the men in trench coats. His cyborg detector was going off like mad. He sliced through the first man, who he’d taken off guard, but the others could not be put off so easily. They were trained operatives and had weapons of their own. Three attacked him as another searched the apartment for whatever they were looking for.
Sysko met their attack with his nanotech sword, deflecting each blow with agility and speed. He glanced over their shoulders to find the third cyborg grabbing Violet and trying to link into her system. Angrily, he gritted his teeth and burst into his thralled dragon form.
His massive dragon body was almost too big to fit inside the apartment, but he clawed at the invaders and slice them apart with ease. He shifted back to bipedal form and jumped on the last cyborg, knocking Violet from its hands.
“Daddy,” the robot wailed.
Sysko sliced his sword through the air, cutting the cyborg’s head off. It rolled across the floor and landed at Violet's feet. The robot screamed and ran under the bed.
“It's okay, Violet,” he said, sitting on the bed and catching his breath. “They're all gone now.”
“What did they want, Daddy?” Violet said, coming out from under the bed.
“I think they wanted you. Your system is highly advanced and uses technology that the Draxos have not even invented yet. If they got a hold of you, they’d have the key to our firewalls. It could have put the entire galaxy at risk.”
“Where's Mommy?”
“I don't know, Violet, but we’re going to find her. Do you know where she kept the files for our firewalls?”
Violet pulled back the area rug in Freda’s room and revealed a secret compartment in the floor.
“Good girl,” he said, pulling the loose board from the floor.
He found the files inside and took them with him downstairs as Violet hurried behind him. They jumped into his speeder and traveled quickly to the school. He left Violet in the speeder while he searched the campus for her. He tried to get a hold of her on his wrist com, but it just kept saying it was off-line. That worried him even more. It was dark and getting later by the minute. Where could she be?
He called her cellphone, but no one answered. Gritting his teeth, he returned to the speeder. Violet was in a frantic state, pacing around the back when he returned.
“Did you find her?”
All he could do was shake his head darkly and get behind the wheel of the vehicle.
“We have to find Mommy!”
“We will find her, little friend. We will find her.”
He rose from the Earth and hovered above the school as his heart pounded and his mind raced. He sensed the most horrific feeling he had ever experienced. His inner dragon’s screams pierced through his ears and echoed across the walls of his mind. Sysko covered his ears against the sound, even though it was coming from within him. In an instant, he knew that something was wrong with his mate. She was hurt or in trouble.
His inner dragon howled and gave him a picture in his mind of a warehouse north of the city. The cyborgs had Freda captive and were going to change her. Without another thought, he accelerated the speeder toward the location and was there in a matter of minutes.
“We have to find Mommy!” Violet continued yelling from the back.
“I will save her,” Sysko said through gritted teeth as he disembarked the ship.
The hatch closed behind him and he left the schematics and Violet inside. He could sense Freda was beyond the closed door of the small warehouse. With all his strength, he kicked the door open and found the room full of newly formed cyborgs in various states of production.
He constructed his nanotech sword as a dozen agents came toward him. Freda was passed out unconscious in a chair. His anger grew to a boiling point inside him. He opened his mouth and breathed out the ether of space. It instantly cooled any cyborgs who came close to him. Their heads burst and shattered into a billion pieces. When they were all dead, he ran to Freda.
Sysko untied her and lifted her limp body into his arms. A red mark shown on her soft flesh where the tip of the drill had grazed her temple. Enraged blood coursed through his veins, and he
swore that he would kill every last cyborg in existence for hurting her.
He carried her out of the warehouse and climbed on board his speeder, placing her gently in the backseat. Once back at the Black Phantom, he took her to the medical bay for a full diagnostic. She was okay, but remained unconscious for several hours. He sat by her side, holding her hand. With each moment she remained motionless, he grew more passionate about his mission to eradicate the cyborgs from existence.
Unlike the other intelligent species in the universe, the cyborgs could not live peacefully among them. Their prime directive was to assimilate other races into their own. Because of that, they were a threat to every living creature in the galaxy. They had to be stopped. Violet sat beside Freda, a worried expression on her robotic face.
“Is Mommy going to be okay?” Violet asked.
“She will be, Violet,” Sysko said, petting the robot on the head.
At first, he’d been reluctant to believe the robot was not a threat, but after spending some time with her, and seeing her intense affection for his mate, he no longer believed she was.
Several hours later, Freda's eyes finally fluttered opened and a wave of relief washed over him. She tried to sit up, but he told her to rest still.
“You've had quite a fright,” he said.
“Oh Sysko,” she said. “Thank God you found me and Violet.”
She opened her arms for the robot creature to bounce into her embrace, and it rubbed its head against her cheek.
“I'll never let them hurt you, Mommy,” Violet said. “I want to help you fight them.”
Sysko watched the little creature with his mate and was convinced the artificial intelligence was not only alive but had a heart and soul of its own. It had loyalty to Freda like a child and therefore could be trusted. But he would not dream of letting it fight the cyborg threat. It was too risky.