Cyborg (20 page)

He didn’t believe her. She could tell from his expression that he knew her desperation to go home wasn’t just a yearning for faces and things familiar. After a moment, he pulled her close and hugged her tightly to him. “You know that’s one thing I can’t give you. I wouldn’t even if I could. Whatever you think about this place, you’re accepted here, as one of us, and no one would harm you even if they knew. Out there, your life wouldn’t be worth one credit. The Company will have a price on our heads by now--yours included. It would mean almost certain death even to try it, and to avoid death even for a time would mean being hunted and constantly on the run.

“I love you. Don’t ask me to take you to your death, Mandy.”

Amaryllis stiffened and pulled away to look up at Cain in stunned surprise.

He smiled wryly. “Isn’t it enough that you’ve got three men who are crazy about you?” It was too much, actually. On top of everything else, to be torn between her feelings for all three men was more than she could handle. She burst into tears and cried all over his chest.

It dismayed him. He stiffened, but he held her until she’d cried herself out.

Finally, she pushed away from him, scrubbed the tears from her face with her hands and made her way to the tiny stream she’d spotted earlier. When she’d splashed cool water over her face until she felt better, she sat back on her heels and looked around a little desperately for something to dry with.

Cain had knelt beside her. He shrugged. “I’d give you my loin cloth, but I’m not at all certain seeing my dangling genitals is something you’d care for at the moment.”

The comment drew a shaky chuckle from her. “I’m sure your genitals are as beautiful as the rest of you, but I’ll use my skirt.”

The sheer veil-like skirt was pretty much as useless as a towel as it was as a skirt, but she managed to wipe most of the moisture from her face. When she glanced shyly at Cain again, she saw that his color was slightly heightened, but he looked pleased with himself. “Men are not beautiful,” he said, mock stern. “It offends the manhood.”

A smile trembled on her lips. “You don’t look offended.”

“It’s hard to be displeased by a compliment. Would you like to see if they’re as beautiful as the rest of me?”

She bit her lip. “I might not be able to contain myself.”

“All the better,” he retorted, chuckling. He reached for her hand. “Come. I’ll take you back to your quarters to rest. You must be weary after releasing such a tidal wave.” Amaryllis allowed him to pull her to her feet. “I’m sorry I cried all over you,” she said self-consciously.

He tucked a finger beneath her chin and urged her to look up at him. “I didn’t melt and it seems you needed the outlet. Feeling better?”

To her surprise, Amaryllis realized she did. Her head ached and her eyes were blurry, but she was tired, not tense as she had been. She nodded.

He leaned down and brushed a light kiss across her lips. “Good,” he murmured against her lips.

It was dark by the time they reached the barracks once more. Amaryllis was still debating whether to invite Cain in and try to prepare a meal for the two of them when she discovered that Reese was waiting for them in the corridor.

She stopped abruptly and glanced up at Cain. “I don’t want trouble.”

His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I won’t give you any.”

“Promise me you won’t start a fight!”

Cain glanced from her to Reese and back again. “Readily.”

Reese didn’t wait for them to reach him. He strode down the corridor to meet them. Uttering a low, animal growl when he was still some two yards away, he launched himself at Cain.

Amaryllis let out a squeak of surprise as the two men slammed into each other with a sound almost like a thunderclap. Reese’s weight and momentum slammed Cain into the wall, shattering the thin layer of mortar that had been lathed on the wall as a finish. A fine, yellowish dust clouded the air.

With a growl, Cain slammed his head into Reese’s, then thrust himself away from the wall and drove Reese across the corridor into the opposite wall.

“Reese! Cain! Stop it!” she yelled over the din the two of them were making as they used each other for a wrecking ball, first one and then the other slamming into the walls around them, cracking mortar and throwing more dust into the air.

Up and down the corridor, Amaryllis heard doors opening.

“They’ll throw you both in jail for public disorderliness!” she cried when Reese tired of slamming Cain into the wall and wrapped his hands about the other man’s throat.

Catching hold of one of Reese’s arms, she tried to pull him loose from Cain. He ignored her, tightening his grip on Cain’s neck.

Someone grabbed her around the waist from behind, snatched her loose from Reese, and set her aside. The world spun dizzily. Amaryllis reached out blindly for the wall to support herself, gasping and coughing and blinking the dust from her eyes.

Dante, she saw, was trying to thrust himself between the two men to break them apart and she realized that it was he who’d pulled her from harm’s way.

The dizziness didn’t subside. It intensified until blackness surrounded her. Her body felt so heavy she couldn’t seem to move. Her last thought was that she needed to sit down before she fell. She didn’t even feel the floor when she hit it.

* * * *

Amaryllis frowned, trying to identify the voice.

“Silence! No one hit her. She fainted. She is coming around now.”

It took more of an effort to open her eyes than she would’ve thought possible.

Her eyelids felt as if they’d been glued shut. Darkness greeted her when she finally managed to open her eyes a crack, but it began to clear almost at once and she saw Dante was leaning over her. Reese and Cain, both coated with dust and as white as ghosts, stood on either side of him, peering down at her as Dante was.

Her head felt like it was going to explode. “What happened?”

“You hit your head on the floor when you fell.”

“I fell?” she asked blankly, lifting her hand with a great effort and trying to feel for the lump on her head.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

Amaryllis stared at the huge hand that was shoved in front of her face. “Two,”

she said slowly.

“What day is it?”

“How the hell would I know that? I haven’t seen a clock or a calendar since we landed,” she snapped irritably.

Dante’s lips flattened. “I should take you to the med center to make certain you don’t have a concussion.”

Amaryllis was instantly completely alert. “No! I don’t have a concussion. I’m fine.” Dante rose to his full height and looked around and Amaryllis realized that she was lying on her bunk in her quarters. She frowned, but she couldn’t remember getting from the corridor to the room. One of them must have carried her in after she’d blacked out.

“I’ll stay with her and make certain she’s alright,” Dante announced.

Reese and Cain exchanged a challenging glance. “I’ll stay, too,” Cain said tightly.

Reese balled his hands into fists. “Over my dead body,” he growled.

Cain’s lips curled upward. “Gladly.”

Amaryllis struggled up onto her elbows. “OUT! All of you! Don’t you
dare
even think about starting again!”

“You could be hurt. I need to stay,” Dante said tightly.

“Someone needs to stay anyway. The barbarian over there broke the door down,”

Cain pointed out accusingly.

“Fine!” Amaryllis growled. “The three of you stay. I’ll leave.”

Dante pushed her back against the bunk, holding her down. “Be reasonable. You need to rest.”

“
Me
? Why should I be the only one that’s reasonable?”

“You can’t stay here alone. The door’s broken,” Cain snapped.

“I’ll stay and guard the door--outside,” Reese growled.

“And who’ll guard the door when the MP’s show up to haul the two of you off to jail?” Dante asked tightly.

Cain and Reese exchanged an uncomfortable glance. “I’ve got enough credits to pay the fine.” He studied Amaryllis assessingly for a moment. “--For both of us,” he added belatedly.

Amaryllis sighed. “I’m tired, but I’m not hurt. Just go away, please, all of you, before they come.”

The three men exchanged silent communication and finally moved to the door.

When they’d left, Amaryllis got off the bunk and shoved the chair across the floor, wedging it against the door. It wasn’t likely to keep anyone out who wanted to come in, not if Reese could break the door down when it had been locked, but it would serve as a delay and an alarm if anyone tried to come in.

Not that she thought anyone would.

She found she was too exhausted to consider trying to fix something to eat.

Instead, she grabbed a piece of fruit and nibbled on it on her way to the shower.

When she’d bathed, she felt even more drained, not rejuvenated. Instead of dressing once more, she climbed into the bunk and closed her eyes. Rest didn’t come.

Instead, she found herself idly stroking her rounded belly, wondering about the infant growing inside of her. There was no comfort in the fact that she hadn’t miscarried. That only meant it wasn’t too defective to live, not that it wasn’t defective.

She was afraid to allow herself to think it might not be. If she convinced herself that it would be alright and carried it to term, then discovered it was horribly malformed, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. It was cruel to inflict that kind of suffering on an innocent when it need not suffer at all, but she was afraid she’d already passed the point where it could be terminated painlessly. It was no longer merely a collection of multiplying cells, without a developed nervous system and brain to register pain. She hadn’t wanted to have to make the choice between giving it a life time of suffering or a quick death.

She was useless, powerless. She’d already failed the poor little thing and, one way or another, it was going to suffer for her incompetence.

Unable to come up with any solution or to bear thinking about it anymore when her head was aching fit to split from her endless quest for a solution, she turned her mind to trying to think what to do about Reese, Dante, and Cain. The competition between them had already erupted into violence several times. She didn’t want their lives destroyed by it.

She had to convince them, somehow, to stop. Choosing one didn’t seem a very good solution, even if she could, even if she didn’t feel that it was wrong to allow them to think she could provide them with a family. Somehow, she didn’t think that would end the fighting. Cain had suggested they could end up killing to get what they wanted and she didn’t think it was at all farfetched that they might, especially after tonight.

Hammering on the door woke Amaryllis late the following morning. She sat up groggily just as Dante shoved the chair out of the way and looked in at her. Glaring at him, she grabbed her pillow and flung it at his head.

He ducked it, but a faint smile curled his lips. “You are feeling better today, I see.” “I was,” she said crossly. “Go away.”

He frowned. “There is a town meeting today. You need to go. I will walk with you.” “I’m not going,” Amaryllis muttered, falling back against the mattress and curling onto her side with her back to him.

Reese and Cain were standing in her living area when she came out of the shower sometime later. She checked, staring at them in outrage. Both men looked her over with keen interest.

“Is there a sign on that door that says ‘come right in’?” she demanded, pointing at the broken door.

Cain and Reese exchanged a sheepish look.

“Did I
say
you could come in?” she demanded when neither man answered.

Reese’s face hardened. “I came to escort you to the meeting.”

“Well, you can leave again, because I’m not going.”

“Everyone has to go,” Cain said. “I will escort you.”

“No, you won’t. You can both leave.”

They looked as if they wanted to argue the point, but after glaring back at her for several moments, both men stalked angrily from the room.

Amaryllis slammed the door and pushed the chair against it again. When she couldn’t hear them any longer and was certain they’d both left, she got dressed, then paced the living area until she decided the meeting had probably already started.

For once, luck seemed to be on her side. The meeting hall was filled to overflowing. When she arrived, everyone seemed to be in the grips of almost hysterical excitement and no one noticed when she entered and found a place to stand and listen among those late comers standing in the back of the room.

She saw once things had quieted down once more that the reason for all the shouting and clapping seemed to be an infant. Reuel and Dalia were standing on the platform at the front of the room, proudly displaying the first child born to cyborg parents.

Amaryllis thought for several awful moments that she would burst into tears. She tamped the urge with an effort as the head of the council stood and began to speak.

He welcomed the hunters as full citizens. He told them they were free to come and go within the colony as they pleased and encouraged to become a part of it.

Amaryllis was waiting for the ‘but’. It came. They would be expected to make an effort to join the colony. If, after a full year, they still wanted to return, they would be taken to one of the colonies of man and left.

A year.

She didn’t have a year to spare. She didn’t even have months.

She was still reeling from that news when the president made an announcement that was even more stunning. In order to try to keep peace among themselves, and because the males outnumbered the females by five or six to one, each female was expected to contract with at least two, and no more than four, males to form a family unit.

Amaryllis was so stunned she couldn’t seem to take it in. Two? Four? What kind of family unit was he talking about for God’s sake? The men would kill each other!