Cyborg (28 page)

She guarded his back, anyway, but discovered fairly quickly that Reese was backing both of them into a corner. “We’ll be boxed in!” she shouted warningly.

He ignored the warning, forcing her back until he was taking the full brunt of the attack and she no longer had enough room to maneuver to try to help. All she could do was try to stay out of his way and not hamper his efforts at defending them.

The natives might have been startled by Reese’s arrival. They might even have been intelligent enough to know fear when the raging blond giant landed in their midst, but their overwhelming superiority of numbers gave them courage and they showed no sign of flagging, or giving up. Within a few minutes, Reese was beginning to look as bad or worse than she did as they came at him by three’s and four’s and managed to break through his guard again and again, nicking his chest, his thighs, and his arms. The sword in Reese’s hand was moving so fast it was little more than a blur of motion. Each time he was attacked from a new direction, he managed to block and parry, but there were too many of them and they were crowding too close for Reese to do more than defend their position. Amaryllis had begun to fear that the two of them would be completely overwhelmed when she heard the hunter’s battle cry. Her heart leapt with relief.

Despite the heat of battle, the natives heard it, too. The moment those in the rear ceased to press forward to take the place of those who’d been injured or tired from wielding their swords against Reese, he launched an offense, cutting down three of the natives in quick succession.

Dante and Cain landed on the ledge behind the group like two great, wingless birds of war. Cain dodged two that launched themselves at him, leaping over them, landing in a dive and roll and scooping up a sword from the hand of one of the fallen along the way. When he came to his feet once more, a smile of grim pleasure curled his lips. Dante grabbed the first three that rushed him and tossed them over the ledge.

Amaryllis heard one scream and then the meaty thuds as three bodies slammed into the rocks below in quick succession.

Within moments of their arrival, a half dozen warriors lay dead or dying and the ledge was so slick with blood that the battle became a
macabre
waltz of death as the fighters slipped and skidded with each step they took. When the few remaining natives finally realized that their numbers had dwindled drastically and they no longer had even the advantage of superior odds, they made a belated attempt to escape.

Reese and Cain cut them down as they ran. Sheathing his sword, Dante crossed the ledge and knelt to examine Amaryllis’ injuries. “There are none that are serious,” she said quickly.

Dante paused, his gaze meeting hers. His face was tight with both anger and anxiety. “You are more fortunate than wise then.”

Amaryllis felt blood flood her cheeks, but she could hardly argue the point. It had been a stupid, careless thing to do and it might have cost both her and her baby their lives--the unknown life form. Tears filled her eyes. Her chin wobbled. “I didn’t know,”

she said in her defense.

Some of the anger left him. “A mission without proper reconnaissance is always unwise, particularly when there was no good reason for it in the first place and one very good reason not to.”

Amaryllis glanced toward Cain accusingly. Unfortunately, he had his back to her and missed the look.

“Do not blame Cain. Your condition is far too noticeable now to be anything but what it is. I had suspected weeks ago, but thought it could not be. Otherwise, you would have told me.”

Amaryllis bit her lip, but she somehow doubted that he wanted to hear her explanation.

Reese and Cain, having checked each of the fallen warriors to make certain none were a threat any longer, moved toward them. Reese studied her for several moments and turned to look at Dante. “She is alright?”

“Minor cuts. They will heal soon. I will need to examine her more carefully, but we must get her home first.”

Reese nodded. “The … infant?”

“I can not tell without a scan, but I do not believe it has come to harm either.”

Amaryllis couldn’t help but notice he refused to look at her, or speak directly to her after that first accusing glance. He leaned down when Dante moved away, scooping her into his arms. “I can walk,” she said stiffly.

He ignored her, tightening his grip on her when she began to struggle to be released. She subsided, sulking.

Silence reigned during the long trek home. Amaryllis had time to experience the full range of emotions attached to her situation--several times. She didn’t have time to wonder what would happen if the authorities discovered it was her that had broken into the med center. She was too worried about what Dante, Cain, and Reese intended as punishment.

All three were totally pissed off at her, though, and she expected to catch hell as soon as they were certain she was alright and they had the time and privacy to give her a taste of their tempers.

She didn’t know whether to be relieved or sorry when they arrived at the plantation and Dante merely escorted her to her room and left again. The lock clicked audibly, and rather ominously, as he closed the door. She sat on the edge of the bed for a while, waiting to see if any of them meant to come back.

Reese and Cain did, but not directly. They arrived at her bedroom windows and, after a great deal of hammering, secured bars in place.

She pointedly ignored them.

When they’d gone away again, she trudged into the bathroom and soaked until it took all she could do to drag herself from the tub again. Wrapping a towel around her, she went back into the bedroom, collapsed on the bed and, in the middle of worrying what they would do next, lost consciousness.

Amaryllis was totally disoriented when she woke. Her brain was sluggish anyway, as if she’d been drugged, and she simply stared at the feeble light outside her windows for some time, trying to figure out why it looked like dawn when it had been around midday when they’d arrived at the plantation.

She finally decided that it was either evening, or she’d slept throughout the afternoon and night.

She felt like she could sleep another ten or twelve hours and wondered what had awakened her. Almost on top of the thought, she heard a scraping sound in the corridor outside her room and the tread of booted feet. Someone was moving something. That must be what had awakened her, she decided.

Slipping from the bed, she padded over to the door and grasped the doorknob. It took her several minutes to figure out that the reason it wasn’t opening was because it was locked.

She’d forgotten she’d been locked in.

She stared at the door for a few moments, trying to summon anger and found she couldn’t. Turning, she stared at the bed listlessly for a minute and finally staggered back to the bed and climbed in again, this time pulling the covers over herself. Despite her sluggishness, though, she discovered she simply couldn’t summon sleep once more no matter how hard she tried. The longer she lay in the bed, the wider awake she became, particularly since the noise outside her room continued unabated.

Finally, she heard footsteps approaching her door and the click of the lock. She debated pretending she was still asleep on the off chance that she might be allowed to avoid a confrontation a little longer, but when the door opened, she sat up, eyeing her visitor warily.

It was Cain. His gaze dropped to her bare breasts, lingered there for several moments and returned to her face. “Did you sleep well?”

It seemed an innocuous enough question, but Amaryllis was wary of where it might lead. She nodded.

After several uncomfortable moments, he moved across the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. “Why did you do it?

Where did you think you would go?”

Amaryllis was on the point of trying to explain why such a stupid decision had seemed like a very sound one at the time when his last question sank in. “What?”

His lips tightened. “Where were you running to? I know we didn’t give you any choice in this, but we all agreed to try to make it work.”

“You think I was running away? Is that what Reese and Dante think, too?”

He shrugged. “I don’t have their ability. I don’t know what they think. You’re saying you weren’t?”

Impulsively, she moved closer, caressing his cheek lightly with her fingers. He stiffened, but he didn’t pull away. “As crazy as it might sound, I love you. I love all of you. I wasn’t running away. At least, I suppose in a sense I have been, but not the way you think. It’s….” Her face crumpled. “…the baby. I think there’s something wrong with it. I just … I just wanted to know and I couldn’t think of any way to find out except to try to get my hands on a scanner. You know I can’t go to the med center. They’d know immediately that I’m … not the same as everyone else.

“It’s just been driving me crazy, trying to decide what would be the best thing to do for it. And then, after I did the scan and everything else happened--all I could think about when I was fighting those horrible creatures was that the baby couldn’t live without me, that it depended on me to keep it safe and give it life and I’d failed it. I think I’m just too selfish to do the right thing for the baby. I love it. I can’t terminate it, even if it’s so bad its life is a misery to it, I just can’t do it.”

“But I was afraid that you would all hate me for producing such a defective child and I didn’t think I could face that either.”

Cain studied her for several moments after she burst into tears and finally pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly.

Amaryllis wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry, Cain. So sorry! I tried to tell you I was wrong for you. I tried to tell Reese and Dante, too.”

He soothed her until she’d cried herself out and then went to get her a washcloth for her ravaged face.

“I hope this isn’t going to become a habit,” Cain said pensively.

Amaryllis mopped her face and peered at him. “What?”

“Crying all over me.”

Her chin wobbled and he pinched it. “No more of that,” he said sternly. “I don’t mind a little watering now and then, but I enjoy your smiles and laughter much better.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t really know what’s wrong with me lately.

Ordinarily, I handle problems much better.”

“This isn’t a problem,” he said, patting her belly. “It’s a gift, and one we would all have rejoiced in even more if you’d shared it with us.”

“Everyone’s really mad with me.”

“Yes. You scared the hell out of us.”

“It wasn’t intentional.”

“Which is why we’ve decided after a lot of consideration only to punish you for a week.” Amaryllis blinked at him. “Punish?” she said slowly. “You mean locking me in?”

“I mean no sex.”

Amaryllis bit her lip. “You’re not serious.”

He sighed. “Alas, yes. I voted in favor of fucking you senseless, but Reese and Dante assured me that pleasuring you wasn’t the sort of punishment that would teach you the right lesson, that it might have the adverse effect of encouraging you instead.”

“You are serious?”

“Unfortunately,” he said glumly.

Amaryllis was more than a little inclined to think he must be teasing her, but he certainly seemed serious. “For a week.”

“Reese was inclined to make it more, but I pointed out that that would create an undue hardship on the disciplinarians.”

Amaryllis shook her head. “I can never tell when you’re joking.”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m dead serious, baby. I adore you. We all do. But if you ever do anything that … dangerous again, you won’t come away from it unscathed. I will make sure you deeply regret it. Now come. Dante and Reese are waiting.”

Amaryllis stared at him distrustfully. “For what?”

“Dante has set up a monitoring station in the next room. As you pointed out, you can’t go to the med center. We brought the med center to you. It’s fully equipped. A little antiquated, I’m afraid, because for some reason the cyborgs hadn’t gotten around to preparing for parenthood--possibly because that wasn’t supposed to be an option for us, but fortunately for us Dante is not only fully qualified as a medic, he is also into research and development.”

Amaryllis studied him uneasily, but she knew he was perfectly capable of carrying her, willing or not. She decided her dignity would suffer less if she went on her own steam. Reese and Dante were both stone faced when she arrived in the examination room with Cain. If she’d been in any doubt that they were still furious with her, that cinched it, but she felt more like she was climbing onto an autopsy table than an examination table.

When she’d settled, Dante moved the tray of instruments closer and began by checking her vitals. Her belly clenched when he picked up the scanner and slowly moved it over her.

He was silent for so long after he’d finished, studying the read out, that she couldn’t stand it any more. “It says unknown life form, doesn’t it?” she said shakily.

He glanced at her then. “The one you used at the med center did because it was calibrated for cyborgs.”

Amaryllis thought that over for several moments. “You mean … it’s because you

… or … uh … Reese fathered it?”

“Reese fathered the child,” Dante said without inflection.

Amaryllis’ gaze darted to Reese. If possible, his face was more stony than before, but it was the look in his eyes that made it impossible for her to maintain her own gaze.

“But … it’s normal?”

Dante gave her a look. “So far as I can see. Why would you think otherwise?”

Amaryllis didn’t know whether to be relieved or not, but she could see Dante thought she was referring to them. “Because I wasn’t born normal,” she said stiffly, ashamed to admit it, but unwilling to allow Reese to think that she’d expected it because of what he was. “It’s why I have the cybernetic limbs, not because of an accident.”

Something flickered in his eyes. Relief? Uncertainty? After a moment, he turned away, moving to the table along the wall. When he returned, he was holding a strange looking object attached to a tiny portable computer. “What is it?”