Twisted Metal Heart - Eve Langlais Page 0,21

mostly because his new leg wasn’t exactly cooperating. The more he glared at the useless hunk of metal, the heavier it seemed to get, which meant he stumbled and dragged the uncooperative foot.

Work like a real limb my ass, he grumbled inwardly. He didn’t understand how these bionic things were supposed to work. Flesh couldn’t control metal, although he’d done pretty damned good when he was pleasuring Riella.

At the time he wasn’t thinking about his alien body parts but about how much he wanted to see her face when she came. It was beautiful. The sight of her parted lips and the sound she made as her body squeezed him…

Not something he would ever forget. It even had the power to make him hard, which distracted him, just not enough to walk with any kind of grace. He could move after a fashion. Step, stomp, step, stomp. His metal arm hung uselessly, not even swinging in time to his gate. It pulled at the stump by his shoulder, made the harness straps chafe across skin. A reminder it wasn’t a part of him.

He would be forever broken. Her words and departure made it clear she didn’t need him. Didn’t think he could offer any help.

Because I’m useless. A drain on resources, according to Alfred.

Fuck that. He wasn’t a weakling or a coward. Alfred and Riella might think him incapable of helping, but he refused to give up.

Strength isn’t everything.

Care to rephrase that? His inner voice replied to his other…fuck, what the hell was happening inside his head? What had she done to him?

Version two point oh.

A remark that didn’t make much sense to him.

He could have sworn his new limbs sighed.

He reached a door partially ajar and heard voices. Her voice. Would she welcome his presence or tell him to leave?

The uncertainty killed him. Old Titan would have assumed she’d want his help, walked in, and asked for a task. Or created a job for himself.

But now he worried he’d be a detriment rather than an asset. Would he get in her way? Could he even defend himself? He might not be able to do much in hand-to-hand combat, but he could still shoot a gun, wield a sword, too, even if awkwardly. And if he went down…

Well then Alfred could stop pissing and moaning.

“Damn it. I don’t understand how they made it past the sensors,” Riella grumbled.

He eavesdropped. Probably not the right thing to do, but he wanted to gather as much information as he could before he walked in. Besides, if she didn’t want him to hear, she would have stopped talking or closed the door because she had to have heard him clomping up the hall.

“I don’t know how they accomplished the feat,” Alfred replied, sounding grave—but since that was his usual tone, that didn’t mean much. “It is concerning given none of the logs for the motion detectors show so much as a blip.”

“Either they located a hidden passageway in or someone found a way to bypass my technology.” She sounded more amazed than angry. “I didn’t think they had that kind of talent.”

“A lot changes in a decade,” Alfred remarked. Implying she’d been gone from the domes a long time.

Titan chose to make his presence known and pushed open the door. “I take it we have company?”

She didn’t look back as she asked Alfred, “Are they Enclave or wild ones?”

He wouldn’t let her shove him away. He would fucking well help or die trying. “Wild what?” Titan asked, moving closer to glance at the screens.

“Spidus.” She pointed to the screen, and he saw shadows that appeared to have many hairy legs that moved unnaturally, a slithering kind of motion.

“Looks like a boneless spider,” he remarked.

“An apt description for the ugly buggers. And mostly harmless. In the wild they usually don’t attack unless you disturb their nest.”

“So we should be fine.” He frowned. “You don’t sound fine.”

“Because they shouldn’t be here. The spidus don’t live in this area. Too arid for them. They prefer moist environments.”

“Could be something flushed them out of their homes.”

“Or the more likely scenario that they’re scouts for the Enclave.”

The nonchalant way she said it made him really wonder if she was teasing. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe you can tame those creatures.”

“Not so much tame as control. Doesn’t take too much of a mental psionic ability. A good trainer can order them to do simple tasks.”

“A mental what?”

“I don’t have time to explain. You’ll have to accept these creatures