Tempted Cyborg (3 page)

He raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Ever since I moved out from home, I did everything in my power to stay in touch with them. But I was always the one making the phone calls, always the one inviting them over for dinner, or trying to make them do things with me.” She sighed.

“What happened?”

“I decided to stop trying and let them take the first step.” She went silent for a while. “I'm still waiting for them to call.”

Hunter grabbed her other hand. “If I wasn't in here, I would take you out for dinner and a movie. I'm sure we could have a lot of fun.”

Hope awoke within her. She hadn't expected to see the old Hunter so fast, but he had emerged as soon as he had remembered her. That made her the happiest woman alive, but at the same time, she knew that he meant taking her out as a friend. That was all she was to him. She assumed, that in his mind, she was still that twelve-year-old girl who loved spending time with him and his bound one. Maybe he had a hard time seeing past that. If it was so, making him accept her as his next bound one would be even more difficult than she had ever imagined.

“I would love that, and this time, we can do adult stuff instead of child stuff.” Avril blushed when she realized her words could be misunderstood. “Um ... I didn't mean ...”

He laughed, and the sound of his laughter hit her right in the chest, awakening all those wonderful memories she had pushed aside.

“It's okay,” he said. “I understand what you mean.”

“Good. It would be rather embarrassing if you didn't.” She felt the heat on her cheeks grow and it would only get worse if she didn't change the subject. “How about you? How have you been doing?” She already had the answer to that question, but she had just blurted it out, searching for something to say.

His expression changed instantly. His smile disappeared and his features hardened. It felt like she had hit a sensitive subject, and she didn't expect it to be anything else. But at the same time, she wanted to know. She had worried herself sick about him over the years. Especially those times when she had seen pictures of him in the media defending himself from the police force or the cyborg soldiers. There had been a few times when she had believed that his final moment had come. She had cried herself to sleep those nights.

Hunter took a deep breath. “I don't remember much from the days after Sarah's death. I remember killing the driver, but after that, it's black. For how long, I don't know, but I remember the feelings that came over me as I felt the bond break. The pain, the despair. It literally felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest, and no matter what I did, I wasn't able to control it. It was so intense that it made me lose consciousness on several occasions. I knew I was dying, but then, from one minute to the other, it all just stopped. The emotional pain was still there, but hidden deep down.” He placed his hand against his chest. “I can still feel it, every day of my life. I feel the damage that has been done, but I also feel how the bond is trying to repair itself.” He took another deep breath. “After what felt like a century, I woke up in an ambulance. I was being transported somewhere. I quickly realized that I was in one of MedAct's ambulances, but I didn't want to go where ever they were taking me. To make a long story short, I managed to escape. I lingered in the woods for days until Nightmare and his Fighters found me. They made repairs to my programming, but it was far from successful. The damage was too great, but I'm still here.”

Avril wished she could have been there for him. “I'm so sorry.”

He went silent for a while. “Why are you here, Avril, really?”

She gulped. It wasn't just a question. It felt more like an order, and she knew that she had to tell him.

“I think you know why,” she mumbled.

His expression tensed as he nodded. “MedAct talked you into becoming my new bound one, didn't they?”

She winced from his assumption. “No! I volunteered.”

CHAPTER 3

Hunter felt surprise fill him as he stared at the brown-haired beauty in front of him. He didn't like the hurt he now saw in her eyes.

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

“Because ... I care about you. I want to give you a new chance at happiness. It always hurt every time I saw you in the media and when I saw what had become of you. I knew you didn't have much of a choice and I knew that if MedAct ever managed to get their hands on you that they would try to convince you into binding yourself to a woman again. I wanted to be there when that day came.”

The blush on her cheeks made her even more appealing. Avril, the sweet and cute, little twelve-year-old girl from long ago was now an all grown up woman, and he couldn't stop staring at her. He heard her words, but her face kept him mesmerized.

“You can't see me as your bound one, can you?” Her voice was sad.

Her question took him off guard. He opened his mouth to answer, but he didn't know what to say. Could she be a potential bound one for him? He knew that once he bound himself to her, he would love her just as much as he had loved Sarah, but right now? Well, he barely knew her, and besides, he had always considered them as friends. Nothing more. It would have been strange otherwise.

“I'm still that twelve-year-old girl in your mind, aren't I?” she asked.

“I guess, in a way, you are.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Avril, why do you want to become my bound one?”

“Because if it's not me, another woman will fill that place. Because if I don't, and you refuse to bind yourself, you will be taken away to a place I cannot go, and we will never see each other again. Because if I don't, you will try to escape so that you can go back to the Fighters, and the risk of you getting hurt again is big. I don't ever want to see you get hurt again.”

He watched her for a while, studying her facial expressions and body language. There was something she wasn't telling him. She seemed too scared, too nervous, too desperate.

“What is the real reason, Avril? You wouldn't put yourself through all that just to save me. Binding yourself to a Fighter is like asking for trouble. We are difficult, damaged, untrustworthy. Don't you know that?”

She nodded. “I know, but you smiled at me as soon as you recognized me. You will never hurt me.”

She had a point. If another woman had walked in it would have been a completely different story. He knew he would have never hurt the woman, but he would have scared her into changing her mind about him. He would have shown her his worst sides, but with Avril, he just couldn't do that.

“What is the real reason, Avril?” he asked again, this time with a more demanding tone.

He watched her swallow and move nervously on her chair. She opened her mouth. He saw her lips tremble. She had been close to tears for a while now, and she seemed even closer now.

“I ... I want to help you.”

“So you are doing this out of guilt? You feel that you owe me because I helped you when you were a child?”

Her chin dropped and she stared at him with huge eyes. “No, it's not like that.”

“Then how is it like, Avril? You realize that once I'm bound to you, you will never get rid of me, right? It will be for life. You won't be able to throw me out once you grow tired of me.”

She looked down and he realized he had hurt her. He immediately regretted his words, but she needed to know the truth. She needed to see the truth in the eye and not expect some kind of fairy tale. He wasn't sure she saw it like that, but he often wondered how the women who wanted to bind a Fighter to them thought. The Fighter's problems didn't go away just because a new bond was in place. Sure, he would feel better, but his programming would still be scarred and damaged from what had once happened.

“I will never grow tired of you,” she said with a low voice.

Confusion grew within him, but at the same time, he became more and more certain that she was hiding something. There was another reason she was doing this.

“I'm damaged, Avril.”

“I know. I've read your files.”

He winced. “My files?”

She nodded. “Doctor Jade Silva showed me your files yesterday. She wanted me to be sure before you and I met.”

“Of course.” He sighed. “And what did my files say?”

“That your programming is severely damaged because of the broken bond. It makes you unstable and gives you restless nights. You switch easily between emotions and anger controls you. You know, all that could be fixed if you bound yourself to me. Jade told me that a few days ago.”

He snorted. “I guess she got the chance to examine me when I was asleep.”

“No, I don't think she did. She told me they wouldn't do that against your will.”

He snorted. “Against my will? She drugged me over and over again. Where was my will then?”

He glared at the one-way window. He couldn't see through it, but he was sure that Jade was on the other side of it. If she tried something like that again, he would make her pay. He wouldn't physically hurt her, but intimidation was something he was good at. Yes, his anger drove him. His anger had been his partner ever since Sarah had died, but his anger had also kept him alive. Living among the Fighters wasn't easy. Most had some sanity left. He was one of them and because of that, he was able to help Nightmare with his goals, but some Fighters had to be kept restrained. Not only were they a danger to others, but also to themselves. It had happened on several occasions that Fighters had attacked him for no reason. Some had had so badly damaged programming that they had been beyond saving and their lives had been terminated with a bullet to the head. It had been fast and easy, ending their suffering.

Living with plenty of unstable cyborgs created many unpleasant situations, but despite that, they stuck together. After all, they only had each other and had nowhere else to go. They had only each other to rely on because as soon as they stepped outside their safe walls
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they were either chased by the police or MedAct's cyborg soldiers. The police wanted to kill them. MedAct wanted to bind them to new bound ones. Neither appealed to a Fighter. Despite the pain in their hearts, most preferred remaining unbound because they all knew that the bond wasn't real. And yet, here he was, with beautiful Avril in front of him, and considering belonging to her ... because he was tired ...

It was a revelation just as shocking and surprising as Sarah's death had been, but in the end, he knew he would never allow it to happen. It didn't matter how sick and tired he was of being a Fighter. Besides, Avril was doing this for the wrong reasons. He refused to be bound to someone who wanted to help him out of guilt. He was sure that was why she was doing this even if she said otherwise.

There was a knock on the door before it opened. A cyborg soldier came in, pushing a cart filled with food. The aroma of mashed potatoes, chicken legs, and dark gravy hit Hunter in the face. It was all put on elegant porcelain bowls. Next to the bowls, he saw two plates, two sets of cutlery, and a bowl filled with vegetables. There were also plenty of sodas, a can of water, and a can of orange juice. Since he was a cyborg, he ate a lot, but there was more than enough on the cart for two people. Apparently, Jade expected him to eat together with Avril.

Two days without eating had taken its toll on his body. He was weak and his mouth watered when he saw all the deliciousness. The drug that had been used on him had made him even weaker, but he had tried not to show how he actually felt. He didn't want anyone to know that his knees were shaking even when he was sitting, or that his hands felt like heavy bricks when he tried to lift them. He wanted them to think that he was all right.

The cyborg soldier left the room without a word.

Hunter met Avril's gaze. “Hungry?”

She seemed surprised by the question.

“You don't expect me to eat all this, do you? I know cyborgs eat a lot, but even I can't get all this down.”

She blushed. “I'd love to have a piece.”

“Good.”

Thankfully, the chains around his wrists were long enough for him to reach out and pull the cart closer. Once it stood by the table, he grabbed the plates. He put one in front of him and one in front of her. He enjoyed having her eyes on him as he set the table. It even made him grin when he spotted her gentle smile that was filled with anticipation.

He was thankful that she was here. Not because she wanted to become his new bound one, but because there had been someone out there throughout the years who had thought of him. It moved his heart, and the long-lost happiness slowly awakened within him again as he placed some mashed potatoes on his plate.

“How much do you want?” he asked and put a big spoon of potatoes on her plate.

“I can do it myself. You don't have to ...”

“But I want to. So, how much?”

Her cheeks blushed even more. He liked that color on her. She hadn't been one of the most outgoing children, but she had never been afraid of trying new things or standing up for her opinion. He saw strength in her. He always had. Her being here was proof enough of her being willing to fight for him.

“Um ... one more spoon, please.”

He gave her another spoon of mashed potatoes before he placed two chicken legs on her plate.

“Gravy?” he asked.