Containing Malice (Rebel Cyborgs #1) - Cynthia Sax Page 0,55

ethical guidelines that had guided her throughout her lifespan.

“I’ll break my vow to you and end my lifespan if you don’t leave me here.” One of her last acts would be to shred her integrity into tiny strips of nothing. That pained her. “Don’t make me do that, Malice.”

“I won’t allow you to do that.” He held out one of his huge hands. “Give me the gun, female.”

Stars. The dominance in his voice pushed her to obey him.

She couldn’t relent. Not now. Not ever.

“Mere planet rotations ago, you wanted to kill me.” She reminded him of that earlier stance. “Go. Save yourself.” She would die happier knowing he was somewhere in the universe, free and happy.

But watching him leave, knowing she’d never see his handsome face again, never touch him, taste him, talk with him, would be the most difficult thing she’d ever done. It would break her. She’d be a fractured shell of a being.

Yet she would do that.

For him.

“Mere planet rotations ago, I did want to kill you.” He verified that hurtful truth. “Now, I want breed with you. Hard. That might repair your purely organic brain, render it fully functional again, restore your intelligence.” His eyes blazed with desire and anger and frustration, the combination thrilling her. “Because you’re not behaving logically, Medic. You belong to me and I won’t part with you. Ever. Whether you’re alive or dead or in between those two states like those decaying beings we confronted in the lab, you will be with me. Always. Accept that and give me your fraggin’ gun.”

Fuck. He would remain by her side even if she was a corpse. She stared at her male. “You’re not behaving logically either.”

“And whose fault is that?” He stepped so close his body armor-clad chest flattened her jacket-and flight suit-covered chest. “You stress my blasted processors with your scent, your touch, your constant lack of concern for your lifespan.”

She tilted her head back and gazed up, up, up at him. “Then leave me here. Go with your brethren. Find peace and happiness and—”

“I am not leaving you.” He roared at her, the ferocity of his response blowing hot over her. “You are mine.”

“We process that.” The female cyborg, Cadet, sounded as aggravated. “She’s yours. You love her. You’ve communicated that to us and to her multiple times.” She waved her hands in the air. “Can we please leave now before the Humanoid Alliance arrives and blows us all to pieces?”

“I’m not leaving without her.” Malice glared at the female.

He didn’t say he didn’t love her. Illona blinked. Did that mean he did care for her in that way?

“Your medic can come with us.” Cadet rolled her eyes. “But she stays away from the bridge. Strain is newly freed. He can’t yet tolerate the presence of humans.”

Illona shifted her gaze to the female, unable to trust her hearing. “I can come with you?”

Malice, her hardheaded cyborg, took advantage of her distraction and snatched the gun from her hands, stuffed the weapon into one of his empty holsters. “She gave her permission.” He grabbed Illona’s waist and hefted her like a container of refuse over his right shoulder. “We’re going with them.” He strapped one of his arms across her legs. “Valor?”

“I’ll cover your backs.” The E Model watched the others. His hands rested on the handles of two of his guns. “Go ahead.”

“There’s no need to cover anyone’s back.” Cadet glowered at him. “No one is in danger.”

Illona’s brain spun as Malice conveyed her toward the ship. No one was in danger. All three of them were leaving. She was going with them. “But-but I’m human.”

The cyborgs hated her kind. Didn’t they?

“My mom is human also.” Cadet fell into place behind them.

Valor followed her. He was barely visible behind the big C Model female.

“My issue wasn’t with you being human. It was because your warrior—” Cadet flung a dark look at Malice. “—didn’t inform me of your presence and he assumed I’d transport anyone he decided to bring with him. This is our second pickup. Newly freed cyborgs don’t like sharing chambers with humans. And the ship has limited space.”

Malice grunted at her.

It had all been a big misunderstanding on their part, and they should apologize. Her warrior, as Cadet referred to him, was unlikely to do that.

“Malice didn’t know he was taking me with him.” Illona offered an explanation for his high-handed actions. “He was planning to kill me.”

“Then he’s a fool.” Cadet shook her head.

Malice growled.

Illona patted his body