Healed by the Cyborg (Cyborg Protectors Book 4) Page 3

  “Clearly, we’re not alone in the universe. Hello Aerin.”

  “They don’t speak Earth standard, so I’ll have to act as an interpreter until we inject you with some nanobots.” The way Lena dropped that startling revelation sounded as though she’d said it more than once already.

  The woman nodded and smiled softly. “La tu.” She reached out and Ina immediately saw her hand was also cybernetic. She said something to Lena, who nodded along before turning back to Ina.

  “She said hello. Also, that she’s going to conduct a quick scan to ensure you don’t have any pathogens that they need to address before she lets you out of containment.”

  “Fair enough.” There were enhanced people back on Earth, but their cybernetics were normally only enough to give people an edge in their jobs or bragging rights. The little she was able to see of Aerin was enough to tell her that these enhancements were far more extensive and advanced than anything they had on Earth.

  The engineer part of her desperately wanted to ask far too many inappropriate questions. The rest of her knew better and made herself wait until a better time.

  The scan only took a few moments and before Ina would have expected, Aerin was analyzing the results. Frowning, she said something quickly to Lena who nodded. “Yeah, we knew that. Will it be a problem if we inject her with the nanobots?”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Aerin found the problem with your eyes. It’s exactly what you were told it was back on Earth. I just want to make sure that the nanobots we need to inject you with so you can understand what everyone is saying won’t cause you problems. The last thing I want is for your sight to be taken from you just so you can carry on a conversation.”

  Aerin shook her head and said something else. Lena cocked her head to the side and snorted. “Really? That’s actually perfect.”

  “What is?” Ina hated not knowing what was being said. “And if you were waiting for my permission or something for these nanobots, consider it given.”

  “Sorry, I still suck at this whole waking people up routine.” She turned fully to Ina and smiled. “Apparently, she can reprogram the nanobots to also do the repairs on your eyes at the same time it reprograms your brain so you can understand everyone. It will hurt like a bastard, but you won’t have to worry about losing your vision.”

  Ina had to admit that there’d been a part of her that had hoped wherever they’d end up, someone on the other side would have a means to help her. Now with the real possibility of a cure nearly in her grasp, Ina didn’t want to risk hoping that everything would be okay. The thought of losing her sight had terrified her in a way nothing else on Earth ever had. Not the environmental catastrophe they skirted around daily, nor the thought of being unemployed in a city where the weak and poor tended to end up dead.

  No, the thought of being alone in the dark, completely dependant on the goodwill of others, of not knowing where she was, what was around her, who was around her was too much to comprehend.

  Relief and fear mixed inside her equally. “That’s…amazing.”

  Lena gave her hand another squeeze. “Okay. Aerin is going to do what she needs to do then and I’m going to hang out here with you. Is it okay to let her out of the stasis tube?”

  Aerin nodded before heading over to a station to work.

  “I guess that’s a yes.” Lena clapped her hands together. “Well alrighty. Let’s get you up and moving.”

  “And you can fill me in on where we ended up and how you came to be such buddies with cyborgs.” As Lena helped her out of the stasis tube, Ina noticed bruises on her throat. “Are you okay? What the hell happened to you?”

  Lena chuckled. “Honestly, both of those answers are linked. And it’s more than a short explanation.”

  “I think we have time.” Pain and stiffness traveled up her legs as Ina put her full weight on them. “I hate this part of cryo sleep.”

  “Yeah, waking up sucks hard.” Lena let go but stayed close enough in case Ina needed her. “As you’ve been able to see, the destination point we reached was inhabited. There are two peoples here. The Grus live on a space station that orbits this planet. The Fallen are cyborgs. They were born Grus, but died in a war and brought back to life. We think that they’re the reason we came out here. The twenty-eight of us on the ship are each linked to a cyborg here. At least, we have been to this point.”

  Ina stopped moving and could only stare at Lena as she spoke. The flashes and floaters were annoying, but even they couldn’t distract her from what she was being told. “We’re linked to people of another race?”

  “Yeah. Well, linked is a bit of a gentle way to put it. It turns out that we are each destined to be with a specific cyborg. Rykal is the leader of the Fallen here on the planet. He was aware of my presence the moment the Kraken floated into their sector of space.” Something in her expression changed, softened as she spoke of him. “He’s determined to keep his people safe, but he risked everything to find me, to make sure that I was okay.”

  “That sounds intense.” Ina had been in a few relationships over the course of her life but none of them had sparked the passion of feelings that Lena clearly had for this Rykal. “Is he the reason you have bruises on your neck?”

  “God no. He’d sooner cut off his own arm than do anything to hurt me.” She smiled softly for a moment before it morphed into a grimace. “Umm, actually it was your mate who did this.”

  Ina froze. “I’m not going to be mated to anyone who would hurt another person. You can tell him to fuck right off.”

  “No no no no no, it’s not like that at all.” Lena sighed, letting her head fall backward. “I swear to God, I’m going to appoint someone else to do this orientation stuff. I fucking suck at it.”

  Ina didn’t know Lena well, but she’d never come across as someone who exaggerated, or who wasn’t totally honest with the people around her. She deserved the opportunity to tell the entirety of the story before Ina jumped to conclusions or panicked. “If he’s not abusive, then what happened to your neck?”

  “One of the reasons we haven’t brought everyone out of stasis immediately has to do with the reactions of the linked cyborgs. You’re only the fourth person, and each time the cyborgs have reacted possessively. Rykal told me it was as though all the programming in his matrix got overloaded and he was left with only the most basic of desires. When they were brought back to life, most of their emotions didn’t come along with them, making things challenging. When someone gets too close to the woman they see as their mate, then that aggressiveness spikes. Apparently, Hallam is normally a calm dude. He’s the doctor in charge of all the cyborgs here on the planet.”

  A doctor? God, her mother would be thrilled. “Where is he now?”

  “I think he went to his office or something. Rykal went to make sure he stayed there until we had a chance to wake you up and fill you in. The whole concept takes some getting used to.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century.”

  Ina had wanted to come out here on the Kraken, wanted to see what her life could be like far away from the constraints and problems of Earth. Until she’d developed issues with her eyes, her entire life had been about work, fixing things, and saving the planet as much as they possibly could. But there’d always been a hole in her life. Something had been missing and no matter how hard she’d tried to fill it, nothing seemed to help.

  Maybe she was destined to be with this Hallam person, or maybe it was yet another thing that would turn out to be little more than a temporary fix for a problem Ina wouldn’t be able to solve.

  Aerin came back over with an injector and held it up for her to see. Lena let out a breath. “Okay, this is going to hurt like a bastard. I’m serious. Pain like you haven’t felt before is going to slam into your brain and make you want to pass out. You won’t and it should be over quickly. Just try and relax into it as much as you can manage.”

  Well, at least she couldn’t claim that Lena hadn’t warn
ed her. Reaching out for the side of the stasis tube, she got a solid grip on it before shooting both women a smile. “Now what?”

  Aerin moved closer and pressed the injector to the space behind Ina’s ear, letting the nanobots flood her body. Ina was half expecting there to be a delay in the pain Lena had mentioned, but no, within a few seconds her brain felt as though it was going to explode out of her skull.

  She cried out and doubled over as her vision swam and sick rose up her throat. She was either going to pass out or throw up, neither option appealing. But as quickly as the pain in her head started, the waves began to recede, making it easier for her to think. Her vision didn’t clear though, if anything she was seeing less than she had before the nanobots had been injected into her.

  “What’s happening?” Ina squeezed the side of the stasis tube, needing to stay grounded as the blackness overtook her sight. “I can’t see!”

  “Shit. Aerin, what’s going on?”

  “Ye cha to calm. Troca Hallam will be able to mag. I’ll contact him.”

  “I can understand her. The words sound like Earth standard.” If she wasn’t so freaked out about suddenly being blind, Ina knew she’d want to learn all she could about the technology.

  “Well, that’s something at least.” Lena reached out for her. “Let me get you over to a chair where you can sit. I suspect Rykal won’t be able to keep Hallam from you much longer. Especially where you’re hurt.”

  “What do you – ”

  “What have you done to my mate?”

  The deep male voice sent a shiver through Ina’s body, and somehow knew she would have recognized Hallam no matter the circumstances. And yet, she couldn’t help but be more than a little annoyed at being treated as though she wasn’t her own person with the ability to defend herself.

  “Mate?” There was no mistaking the confusion in Aerin’s voice. “How’s that possible?”

  Lena sighed. “It’s a long story.”

  “No one has done anything to me.” She felt the tension rise in the air as he moved closer to her. There was a presence to him that didn’t require her vision for her notice. Unwilling to be intimidated by him, Ina sat straighter and looked toward the direction she knew he stood.

  “Aerin, move back.” Lena’s whispered warning didn’t help put Ina at ease.

  Her mate had come for her, and Ina couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

  Chapter Four

  Hallam was ready to kill every person in the room. His body shook from his barely contained rage, making it difficult for him to walk toward her without wanting to break into a run. “I’m going to ask again. What have you done to my mate?”

  The logic and reason that he prided himself on had fled from his brain. All that remained was the singular impulse to go to her and make everything better. Rykal was standing behind him, but Hallam knew his commander would be on him in an instant if Hallam made any move toward Lena. While they’d been sequestered in his office, Rykal had said little, as though he knew Hallam was unable to hear him or take to heart any wisdom he had to offer.

  The people standing close to his mate – Ina – retreated as he grew closer. He was aware of Lena and her importance to Rykal and tried to keep his distance from her. One injury to Rykal’s mate would be forgiven, a second would not. She did have the information he required, and he chanced a look in her direction.

  Lena was not fragile and did not look away from the glare he shot her way. “We injected the nanobots into her after Aerin adjusted them to also correct an eye problem that Ina had.”

  Ina snorted. “They were supposed to fix my eyes, but they’ve somehow made me blind.”

  With difficulty, Hallam forced his logical side to the surface. “You’re not blind. The nanobots are correcting your vision. This takes time.”

  Ina appeared to consider this, nodding. “When they’re done correcting the damage then I should be able to see again.”

  “Better than before.” He walked a circle around her, unable to focus on anything else. “Are you in any pain?”

  “It’s…disconcerting. The headache from the nanobots seems to have receded, but the backs of my eyeballs are itchy.”

  That was something that they had in common. The itching in the back of his brain that had started the closer she’d gotten to him was still there. He could feel the connection between them, especially now that she was standing in front of him. She was the source of his pain, his potential pleasure, the fixed point in the universe that was his and his alone.

  Hallam stepped closer to her as Ina stiffened. “I won’t hurt you.”

  “I…I’m sure that’s true. But I can’t see. I’ve only been awake for a short time after having flown across the galaxy to come here, and I’m more than a little freaked out knowing that you think that I’m your mate.”

  “You are my mate.” Never had he been so certain of something in his entire life.

  Ina was taller than Lena, her long black, curly hair fell across her shoulders like a wavy blanket. Her brown eyes might be blind, but he could see her emotions reflected in them: fear, confusion, determination. She was a formidable woman, someone who would attack her problems head-on. Exactly the type of female he’d been attracted to before his death and rebirth.

  Hallam stepped closer to her, and this time she didn’t flinch. Instead, she turned toward him and looked up as though she was able to see him. He couldn’t stop himself from cupping her face in his hands, needing to touch her, feel her skin beneath his. His cybernetic matrix flared as the onslaught of new code slammed into it, doing its best to regulate the sudden changes.

  “No one will hurt you again. Intentional or otherwise.” He leaned in and claimed a kiss, enjoying her soft gasp before he swallowed it up.

  Hands pressed against his chest, pushing him away, gently at first, then harder. It was only when someone pulled him away from behind that Hallam realized Ina was trying to get away from him. “Let me go!”

  “Brother, calm down.” Rykal’s grip unrelenting on his shoulder. “I know it’s difficult, but you need to give her space. She’s injured and scared.”

  “She’s mine. Let me go – ”

  Rykal leaned in, his mouth close to Hallam’s ear. “No one will take her. She’ll be yours. But you need to be her doctor first. You need to treat her wounds. Heal her first. Let her get to know you and trust you before you give in to that pull. This will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but it will be the most rewarding.”

  Hallam pulled in a shaky breath as the tension inside him flowed away. Yes, of course he needed to help her. Needed to heal her vision and anything else that might be wrong with her. He was a doctor, genetically engineered to save lives and help others. And right now, she was the most important person in the galaxy.

  “Yes.” He swallowed and gave his matrix a moment to finalize the regulation of the adrenaline rush that had hit him. “I’m a doctor.”

  “That’s right.” Rykal stepped away, but Hallam wasn’t worried. He knew he was back in control of his actions, even if it was tenuous.

  “I’m sorry.” This time when he moved closer to Ina, Hallam was able to keep a respectable distance. “This connection between us is overpowering my logic centers.”

  Ina licked her lips before nodding. “That’s okay. Lena told me that this link between our two peoples was unexpected on both sides. It stands to reason that we’ll all make some mistakes.”

  Gods, she was beautiful and forgiving. “I’m concerned that the nanobots haven’t completed their repairs to your eyes. I’d like to take you upstairs to the medical bay, while the others determine the second human who will need to be woken.”

  “I know we don’t necessarily have the power,” Lena took a single step toward him before stopping short, “but is there a way we can do this without waking another? Having two out of control cyborgs really doesn’t feel like the best idea to go with.”

  “I’ve tried to find another way, but there simply isn’t one. If
we want to move them off your ship, at least one other must be woken.” Given how powerful the urges to claim and possess were for him to keep under control, he had to agree with Lena’s concerns. “Perhaps we can find a place to move the other woman that might shield the connection.”

  Rykal shook his head. “I felt Lena from across our sector of space. I doubt there’s a room here on Zarlan that would stop a Fallen from feeling his mate.”

  This was a problem for the others to find a solution to. The only thing Hallam cared about was Ina and ensuring that she was healed. “I’ll leave that to you. Ina,” he reached out his hand and brushed his fingers softly against her arm, “would you come with me?”

  He had to consider the possibility that she wouldn’t. It was something his brain knew could happen, even if his baser desires wouldn’t accept the possibility. These warring parts of his mind were maddening, especially as he felt his grasp on his control was slipping from him the longer he went without touching Ina.

  Thankfully, she straightened and faced him. Holding out her hand, she lifted her chin. “I’ll need you to guide me. And I’d like Aerin to come with us.”

  No! Mine! Alone and no one else! He took a breath and momentarily closed his eyes before he took her hand in his. “Yes. Aerin is my assistant and will need to understand what’s happening as well in case we need to perform similar repairs on the other passengers.”

  Ina visibly relaxed. “Thank you.”

  Rykal moved next to his mate. “Lena and I will try and determine the best option of who to wake up next. But we need to start unloading the stasis tubes now. The sooner we can get the Kraken out of here and ensure that the signal that was being broadcast out to the Sholle has been stopped, the better.”