Hidden Phase

Spaceport: Hidden Phase Lexxie Couper All rights reserved. Copyright ©2008 Lexxie Couper Warning: The unauthorized repr...

Author: Couper Lexxie

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Spaceport: Hidden Phase Lexxie Couper All rights reserved. Copyright ©2008 Lexxie Couper Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. ISBN: 978-1-60521-094-0 Formats Available: HTML, Adobe PDF, MobiPocket, Microsoft Reader Publisher: Changeling Press LLC PO Box 1046 Martinsburg, WV 25402-1046 www.ChangelingPress.com Editor: Chrissie Henderson Cover Artist: Sahara Kelly

This e-book file contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language which some may find offensive and which is not appropriate for a young audience. Changeling Press E-Books are for sale to adults, only, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

Spaceport: Hidden Phase Lexxie Couper Don’t piss off Sabian Talano if you want to stay in one piece. Talano’s the head bouncer at the spaceport’s most popular bar, Haze, and everything about him is shrouded in absolute mystery. No one knows who Sabian Talano is, and that’s exactly the way he wants it to stay. So who is the woman in skin-tight red leather and why is she on ’Port Adana asking questions about the secretive head bouncer? And why do her eyes burn with hunger when she finally finds him? Sabian Talano’s past is about to catch up with him. And it couldn’t be more dangerous. Or erotic.

Prologue Interplanetary Alliance Council Covert-Ops Compound, Batrium Nuun’r Prime IAC 208 “Didn’t your mother tell you it’s rude to fuck and leave?” Unit Zero Agent, code name Proserpina, glared at the man who was her mentor, lover and an efficiently lethal killer. Watching him shove long, corded legs and his very impressive cock into a pair of Ezelian leather combat trousers made her shift on the tangled sheets. His damp cum trickled slickly over the high inside curve of her thigh, making her sex constrict and her heart thump. He lifted his gaze from the strafer now in his hands, and his piercing silver eyes made her pussy squeeze again. “I didn’t have a mother. I have a new target.” His deep voice -- calm and completely composed -- stroked the silence of the small room. Pulse leaping into wild life, Proserpina scrambled upright. “Alone? Without me? What about my training?” The silver stare dropped back to the strafer, long, sure fingers checking the complicated charging system with blurring ease. “Proserpina, your training is complete. You’re now the second best assassin the IAC has. Probably the second best in the known systems.” Proserpina’s throat grew tight. “Second best?” One of her mentor’s exceptionally rare grins curled the sides of his mouth. “After me. You’re not that good.” He slid the strafer into its holster on his right thigh, and not for the first time since knowing him, Proserpina found herself unnerved. When had he strapped that around his leg?

Lexxie Couper

Spaceport: Hidden Phase

-6-

She’d fought like a demon to be assigned as his student on being recruited by Unit Zero. More than one night had been spent spitting up blood, tending her injuries after a workout in the IAC assassination division’s holo-dojo, wondering if she’d lost her mind, if it was all worth it. What kept her going through each and every brutal, bloody training session the computer created was the knowledge she was being watched. She’d felt eyes on her every time, studying her form, her technique, noting how she handled each broken bone suffered, how swiftly she dealt punishment to every simulated attacker fought. Every session, as she swallowed her blood, sweat and pain, she prayed those eyes belonged to Unit Zero’s most mysterious, deadly and feared agent, code name Thanatos. Little was known about him, except that when he was assigned a target they were dead within the cycle, regardless of who they were or how untouchable they were supposed to be. Sixty days into her training, after she’d shed more blood and killed more simulated targets than she believed possible, Thanatos himself had appeared in the dojo. His massive frame had radiated an icy menace that made her gut churn. Silver eyes raked over her, marking her. Noting her scars and sweat. Making her heart thump with hope and her cunt constrict with an excitement she’d never experienced before. She’d met his silent stare through the tangled mess of her hair, dragging one ragged breath after another through her nose, her blood roaring in her ears, her body burning with adrenaline. Jaw clenched, she’d lifted her chin, daring him to break the silence. He didn’t. Instead, with a barely perceptible nod, he left. The dojo shimmered around her, the training program she’d spent what felt like a lifetime in, replaced by what could only be described as a torture arena with weapons of every kind imaginable hanging on the walls. Waiting to be used.

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-7-

Before she’d had the chance to draw breath, he’d leapt at her, seemingly materializing out of the arena’s shrouding shadows, smashing her against the far wall as his fist smashed against her jaw. And so her true training began. Over time he’d broken her, torn down her weaknesses, destroyed her inhibitions. Educated her on every possible way to extinguish a life -- up close or from a distance. Taught her how to control every emotion she had, every fear, every thought. He’d remade her, sculpted her, molded her into an image after his own likeness. Turned her into a killing machine. She’d grown to hate him with every minute of each training day. Despised him. Loathed him and wished him dead -- as much as she’d grown to revere and respect him. Almost as powerfully as she’d grown to lust after him. He practically owned her. He’d tortured her, humiliated her, viewed her naked vulnerability with the same flat, emotionally detached eyes that gazed on her naked body. Yes, his hands had brought more pain to her body than all her holo sessions combined. But the rare flashes of approval in his usually unreadable eyes bolstered her pride and sense of self-worth. He’d taken the unrelenting shame of her childhood -- the parentless existence in an IAC refugee compound where she’d barely survived, scavenging whatever she could barter, including her once-innocent body -- and turned it into a poised, detached resolve more solid than the Five Moons of Maylaria. He’d done all that, but not once had he ever done what she so deeply, secretively, desperately wanted him to do. Fuck her. Claim her. Until tonight. Tonight, he’d walked into her cubicle, torn her vest open and thrown her onto the bed. One orgasm so powerful she’d felt sure her heart would stop. One mindblowing, body-crushing explosive taste of his mastery. It wasn’t enough. She feared it never would be… And now he was leaving.

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-8-

Proserpina studied him, letting her gaze skim over the chest both harder than Rellian steel and smoother than Zondorian velvet, over the stomach muscles her tongue and lips had caressed only moments earlier. “But I always go with you.” She mentally cringed at the whiny tone in her voice. Gods, she was a UZ assassin, not a desperate, clingy female. What in the name of all the hells was she doing? Silver eyes studied her as he shrugged into a heavy and well-worn black leather jacket, the pockets of which Proserpina knew contained at least five weapons of death. “Your training is complete, Proserpina. You’re on your own now.” She swallowed. Not just at the use of her code name, an ancient Terran name he’d assigned her after she’d survived the first week of his training, but at the smoldering desire she saw still burning in his normally unreadable eyes. Her pussy constricted and her breath grew short. He might be going on a mission, but he wanted to fuck her again. “On my own?” she repeated. The corners of his mouth twitched, a little, as he lifted his neutralizer from the room’s com-desk and slipped it into the waistband at the small of his back. “You told me once you knew how to make an Irridian Slap.” He deactivated the door’s locking mechanism, stepping into the empty corridor it revealed. “Killing’s thirsty work. I’m pretty certain I’ll be needing that drink when I get back.” The door slid closed between them, cutting Thanatos from Proserpina’s sight. She sat motionless, listening to the thick silence of her quarters, imagining his passage down the corridor, his massive frame dominating the narrow space, his finely-tuned muscles coiling and flexing with each step he took. He was gone. He’d left her and she didn’t know when she’d see him again. Or when she’d get the chance to make him that… The glum thought faded away, and a grin split Proserpina’s face. An Irridian Slap. He’d requested an Irridian Slap. The highly illegal and very potent aphrodisiac used by sexual partners to stimulate all the body’s senses during copulation. Wriggling

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on the bed, she took a deep breath, letting the musky scent of their passion seep into her very being. He wanted to fuck her again. When he got back from the mission, he wanted to fuck her again. Feeling, for the first time in her life, like a real woman, she threw up her arms and dropped backward onto the tangled sheets, grinning widely at the stark white ceiling above her. “I’ll make you an Irridian Slap, Unit Zero code name Thanatos. And after you drink it, I’m going to show you why you named me Proserpina, the Ancient Terran Goddess of Birth-Death-Rebirth.” She wriggled some more on the sheets, breathing in her trainer, mentor and allround lethal killer’s distinct, addictive scent. “You may have created the second best assassin in the known systems,” she stated, grinning at the ceiling and seeing Thanatos in her mind, “but I bet I’m the best lover you’ve ever had. I don’t want to be on my own anymore, and the look in your eyes told me you don’t either.” She let her fingers dance over her pebbled nipples, down the flat plane of her stomach to the throbbing button hidden between the folds of her still damp sex. “Which means it’s time for you to experience a rebirth of your own.” She closed her eyes and slipped her fingers into her sodden pussy. “When you get back your true training will begin.”

Chapter One Haze, Spaceport Adana IAC 211 “Who’s goin’t make me?” Sabian Talano suppressed a sigh, his stare fixed firmly on the inebriated, slightly swaying Mendovian waving a broken bottle in his face. Every time a new ship docked, every time a new smuggler, illegal trader or bounty hunter landed on ’Port Adana, Sabian had to deal with at least one idiot too intoxicated to realize they were about to get their nose/muzzle/snout broken. Tonight was no exception. The Mendovian with the broken bottle and twitching eye stalks had spent the better part of the evening -- and a shitload of credits -- pouring ale after ale down his throat, boasting to anyone who cared to listen about the haul of Ezelian Dream Spice he’d just snatched from under the IAC’s nose. Mauling the ropki girls, groping the bar staff and hurling insults at K’Mere’s latest rendition of the Zondorian classic “Whip Me” on karaoke. As far as Sabian was concerned, the drunken imbecile should have been ejected from the bar after his second drink, but Hazel -- being a big fan of pissing off the IAC -had given the smuggler a little more slack than usual. That was, at least, until he’d tried to stick one of his tongues down her throat. “So?” the Mendovian snarled, growing less inebriated and more controlled with each wavering jab of the broken bottle. “Ya goin’t answer me? Who’s goin’t make me leave? You?” Sabian nodded. Once. “Yes.” He moved. At that exact second the Mendovian lunged at him.

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Mendovians are fast. Sabian was faster. He always was. His fist smashed into the smuggler’s ample gut, his knuckles punching into a thick layer of winter fat and a wall of solid muscle. The Mendovian let out a choked oomph, the sound both hurt and surprised. He doubled over, doing what looked like a hasty and painful attempt to smack his own forehead against his knees. Sabian jerked his fist back, ready to deliver another blow if needed. It rarely was. Once an opponent realized how quick he was, they usually scurried out of the bar, tattered pride dragging behind them. Something about this opponent, however, kept Sabian more on guard. Alert. The bar fell silent, all eyes on the stooped smuggler. A thick air of dread and excitement thrummed through the gawking crowd. The regulars shuffled their feet, casting Sabian knowing looks. They’d seen him fold more than one difficult patron in half. Were they going to see it again? K’Mere skittered off the stage, tail swishing, ears flat, deserting her beloved karaoke for the safety of wherever it was the Kitali escaped to when things in Haze got ugly. Sabian stared at the back of the Mendovian’s head, muscles coiled. Ready. “Don’t do it,” he said. Calm. Composed. Twin eyestalks twitched. Wide shoulders bunched under the Mendovian’s heavy flight jacket. Sabian ground his teeth -- ah, fuck -- and swung his fist, connecting with the smuggler’s jaw the precise moment the Mendovian leapt up from his stoop to charge him. A loud gasp filled the bar. A blinding light swept across the room, somewhere to his left. Sabian bit back a curse. Fuck! Holly Barberossa and her smartcam. His image would be in the Adana Observer for a week! The Mendovian’s limp body arced backward, eyestalks flapping, arms flailing. He hit the floor with a thud, the impact sending a shock wave of dull vibrations up Sabian’s legs. Some SOP foolishly burst into applause a way back in the crowd,

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Barberossa’s smartcam flashed on again, and the crooning tones of K’Mere wafted from the karaoke stage once more. Sabian shook his head, giving the still and decidedly unconscious Mendovian an indifferent look. Lifting his head, he ignored the sight of the petite but determined Barberossa cutting a path through the crowd toward him and nodded at one of his crew. The Rellian detached himself from the writhing mass of patrons on the dance floor and hurried over. “Get rid of him,” Sabian said, not looking at the motionless Mendovian on the floor. “Put him back on his vessel and arrange a doc to mend his ribs. I’m pretty certain I broke at least five.” Diirch smirked. “Only five? You feeling soft t’night, Boss?” Sabian gave the Rellian, one of the bar’s more witty bouncers, a level stare. Diirch grinned. “Gotcha, Boss. Doing it now. Charging the doc’s bill to the usual account?” Sabian nodded, turning back to the bar. It was late, and he wanted to -“Another patron reluctant to leave, Talano?” Holly Barberossa blocked his path, smartcam zeroing in on his face like a striking serpent. “You dealt with him harder than normal. And faster. Care to offer a quote for the story?” Sabian met the woman’s intense stare. Holly Barberossa had been after his story since the moment he’d arrived on the station. The fact she’d been unable to dig up anything annoyed the shit out of her. It was almost enough to make Sabian smile -- if he didn’t know just how good at her job she was. As it was, she’d made him wary. Thankfully, she’d stayed away from Emylie. So far. She licked her lips, a dogged light in her brilliant blue eyes. “Haze Bouncer or Haze Brutalizer? It’s a catchy title, don’t you think?” Sabian clenched his fists. Fuck. He didn’t need this right now. He just wanted to finish his shift and -“Or maybe I should run with Sabian Talano. The Man with No Past Strikes Again?”

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- 13 -

“Holly.” ’Port Security Commander Kala Decoltéir suddenly appeared beside the reporter, towering over her. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about the Nil Raja article in last week’s Observer.” Barberossa turned to Decoltéir, irritation mingled with suspicion crossing her face. The security commander flicked Sabian a quick look -- You owe me -- before she took Holly’s elbow in her grip and turned the reporter away from him. Sabian ground his teeth harder. Kala Decoltéir was a brilliant security officer. She knew just as little about him as Barberossa did, but until recently didn’t seem bothered by the fact. Apart from offering him a job on her team when he’d first arrived, an offer he’d refused, she’d left him alone. He knew she kept an eye on him. Someone his size with his obvious skills was never going to pass under her radar, but that was it -- a professional eye. If he’d known she was in Haze tonight he would have been a bit slower dealing with the Mendovian. ’Port Security Commander Kala Decoltéir would not have missed how preternaturally fast his strikes were tonight. This is what he got for losing his focus. And if you lose your focus, Emylie could end up dead. The thought sent a chilling tension straight into his chest. Stepping over to the main bar, mindless of the customers almost stumbling out of his way, he flagged Hazel’s attention. “I’m finished for the night,” he said, his voice carrying over K’Mere’s drawling rendition of the Old Earth classic “What’s New, Pussycat?” “Priirj and L’wxan are on till close.” Hazel gave him a small smile and nodded, her eyes warm and understanding. “Give her my love.” Sabian felt the sides of his mouth curl in a rare smile. He returned Hazel’s nod and turned from the bar, weaving through the crowd and exiting Haze. A cacophony of sound hit him. People shouting, laughing, screaming. Kitali hissing at those passing too close to them, claws scraping the cold metal floors. The catcalls and moans from Blow Job Alley, the chimes of the ropki dens, the goading

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insults from the slave auctions. Nighttime on ’Port Adana. A symphony he’d grown accustomed to quite quickly. He walked through the usual mix of humanoids, aliens, AIs and service-bots, casting not one of them an interested gaze as he headed home. With the exception of the odd, drunk new arrival, no one caused him any hassle. Ripping the tongue from the mouth of the Mentuan slave merchant offering him ten thousand credits for Emylie mere minutes after they’d stepped foot on Adana had cemented his reputation very quickly as someone not to mess with. It was also the only information Hazel required before offering him the job as Haze’s head bouncer. His mind wandered back to that first hour on ’Port Adana, Emylie’s fingers threaded through his, her soft, warm body trembling slightly, dark brown eyes wide, pale blonde hair a shining halo in the spaceport’s dim, low light. She’d said nothing as they made their way to their new home. She rarely did. Her eyes told him everything -- she was scared, but she trusted him. She still looked at him that way after all this time. It made him feel meek and invincible at once. It made him want to stop time and do everything in his power to make her smile, that gentle, small stretching of her lips rarely seen. It made him feel like he had a soul. If only she knew. A lump formed in Sabian’s throat and he clenched his jaw, quickening his pace. He despised these moments of emotional vulnerability. It was completely out of character. It reminded him of another life, another time, another woman… He shoved the unwanted and entirely unexpected thought away. Fri’ac, he needed to focus. Almost Calling tonight in Haze, and now dwelling on a life long in his past? Think about Emylie. Get your head where it needs to be and keep it there. Rounding a corner, he paused at a food dispatch station. Waving his ’Port ID card at the scanner, he waited for the station to register his credit balance before extracting an apple. It was expensive, and his credit balance was about to be hit with the doctor’s bill for healing the inebriated Mendovian smuggler, but worth it all the

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same. The exotic fruit from the derelict planet was Emylie’s favourite. If she was still awake, he’d present it to her. A surprise luxury to make her smile. He tucked the small, round piece of red fruit firmly beside his favorite deatomizer inside his jacket, continuing toward Level 9 and the small unit he called home. Most of his neighbors were “day” workers, legitimate merchants, medical staff, educators for the ’Port’s two schools, so by the time he’d finished at Haze the silence of the still corridors rolled over him like a calming meditation, easing the knots in his muscles and subduing the epinephrine in his system. Partially. He never fully relaxed. He was incapable of doing so. Fifteen minutes later he stood at his door, eyes closed, limbs loose. Taking a steady, deep breath, he let the last of the night’s adrenaline seep away. He’d deal with Kala Decoltéir and Holly Barberossa later. The rest of the night was his… and Emylie’s, if she was awake. He stepped into his apartment, reaching down and withdrawing his strafer from its holster as he did so. “You’re home early.” The soft female voice lifted his head from his weapon, and he studied the gynoid standing by the room’s lone porthole. Not for the first time, Sabian found himself impressed with Mare’ree’s perfect humanoid façade. Her honey-brown hair was thick and glossy, her blue eyes caring and friendly, her soft, cuddly frame, complete with ample bosom, made deliberately with hugs and comfort in mind. Yet beneath it all, beneath the warm, maternal exterior, the ’droid ran a “protect” program that made her a killing machine. If the need arose, she could tear an attacker apart in six point two seconds. And as far as Sabian was concerned, that made Mare’ree the perfect companion for Emylie while he was at work. “I gave myself an early-mark,” he answered, tossing the strafer onto the closest sofa before withdrawing his de-atomizer from his jacket and placing it on the bench behind him. “Is Emylie awake?”

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The gynoid shook her head, soft curls bouncing around ears so carefully created he could almost believe he saw wax in their cavity. “She tried to stay awake for you, but sleep finally took her. I saw her to bed sixty-seven point five nine minutes ago.” Sabian felt his lips curl into a small smile. He withdrew the apple from his pocket and sat it beside the de-atomizer, giving the ’droid a slight nod. “Thank you, Mare’ree. You may retire now.” The AI tilted her head to the side. “Sleep well, sir.” With fluid grace, Mare’ree crossed the living area of Sabian’s apartment and disappeared into a recessed booth in the far wall. A low hum followed by a lower click told Sabian she’d connected with her core unit and put herself into “rejuv” mode. He chuckled softly. Obviously Emylie had given her a hard time tonight. Unbuckling the strafer’s holster on his right thigh, he dropped it onto the sofa beside the highly illegal gun, removed the synaptic neutralizer from his waistband at the small of his back, slid the neo-energy gutting blade from its sheath on his left biceps and disengaged the small neural disruptor from its hidden compartment in his right boot. He shucked out of his jacket, withdrew the baridium dagger from its harness on his left wrist and crossed the room. Emylie was asleep. It was time he slept too. The small bedroom was shrouded in shadows. He moved through them, the soft, even sounds of her breathing a beacon in the darkness. Stopping at the bed, he silently lowered himself to the mattress, perching on the edge as he passed his hand over a nearby sensor. A low, muted glow illuminated the bed, casting the sleeping child stretched under the soft blankets in gentle, warm light. Long fair eyelashes lay against round, flawless cheeks, and pearlescent eyelids closed over eyes of the richest chocolate, eyes of solemn contemplation, eyes that had seen more terror and horror than any six-year-old should. Long, pale blonde hair fanned the pillow, a few tousled strands resting against a rounded jaw line that hinted at an inner strength and the woman the young girl would become. Coral-pink, bee-

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stung lips were parted slightly, soft and relaxed in repose, and Sabian couldn’t help but smile at the location of Emylie’s left hand. Fingers curled into a loose fist, her thumb popped, perilously close to her mouth. She’d been awfully embarrassed when he’d first found her sucking her thumb and nothing he could say would ease her shame. It mattered little he’d told her all three-year-olds were allowed to do it, most especially ones without mommies. She’d stared at him with her large, wide brown eyes and shook her head. “The man with the needle hits me if I suck my thumb. Are you going to hit me?” Three years had passed since that night and he’d never found Emylie sleeping with her thumb in her mouth again. He’d spent every night since picturing what he would do to the “man with the needle” if they were to ever come face-to-face. He’d spent every night since wishing to fri’ac they would. Gently, silently, knowing she slept lighter than an Erturian she-fox, he brushed the errant strands of hair from Emylie’s face. His fingertips made no contact with her skin, his hand barely disturbed the air, but her eyelids fluttered open all the same and she gazed up at him. “Are we safe?” It was the same question she asked him every night. And, as always, he gave her the same answer. “We are safe.” For the most part, it was the truth. Her small mouth curled into a tiny, sleepy smile and she closed her eyes again, reaching for his hand with her own. She sighed, the delicate sound peaceful and heartbreaking at once, and was asleep once more. Sabian Talano studied her for a long, long moment before slowly disengaging his fingers from hers. She was special. Unique. In a world of corruption, perversion and sickness, she was the cure. He stood, chest tight, throat tighter, and left the room, crossing to his own sleeping quarters on the other side of the apartment. He couldn’t describe the emotion making breath difficult to draw, but he knew he couldn’t live without it now. Three years ago he’d been someone else entirely. Someone brutal. Heartless. Someone hollow. And then he’d been sent to kill Emylie. The only one of her kind.

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Every night he thanked fri’ac he hadn’t. Every night he wondered who Unit Zero would send to do so. And when.

- 18 -

Chapter Two Sector Seven A, Fourth Quadrant. Secular System. His tongue stabbed into her pussy, its slightly rough wet girth playing over the throbbing knot of her clit. There was nothing gentle about the wickedly abrasive penetration and she didn’t want it any other way. Strong, hard fingers gripped her hips, held her both to the firm sleeping pallet and a mouth in the process of launching her to sexual rapture. Falynn Mavek, premier Unit Zero Agent, gazed blindly at the ceiling of her quarters, the bone-stroking vibrations of her ship’s hyper-drive engines magnifying the waves of exquisite pleasure rolling through her body. Every nerve ending thrummed with the building energy of her rapidly approaching orgasm. An orgasm promising to be the first of many. When it came to climaxes, Forty-Two always delivered. Her clit was a swollen button of hypersensitive flesh, the conduit for every jolt of wet heat the tip of his tongue seared into her core. Falynn bit down on her lip, the sharp, self-inflicted pain an automatic ploy to derail the moans clawing at her throat. No matter how good it was -- and sex with Forty-Two was always very, very good -she never made a sound during sex. It wasn’t the years of brutal training under the aegis of the Unit’s most notorious master agent that had her muzzling her pleasure. She never relinquished control of her emotions anymore. Maybe it was because the last time she’d made a noise during sex, her lover had walked away -- and never came back. Everyone said Thanatos was dead, but she didn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe it. How could he be? He was too good. Too fast. Time after time she’d seen him defy the laws of time and physics. He was unbeatable. Untouchable. Except by her. That once.

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Damn him to all the hells, he’d probably got the Irridian Slap he wanted from some other female. If so, she hoped he really was dead. She hoped he’d died thirsty. The tongue in her cunt stopped its delicious, orgasm-inducing action, and the fingers curled harder into her hips. “Stop thinking.” Forty-Two’s deep voice rumbled with potent power and undeniable command. “How do you know I’m thinking?” she ground out, teeth clenched, pulse quick in her neck. He chuckled against her pussy, the rumble vibrating into her core and making her breath catch. “You know why.” He thrust his tongue deeper past her folds, and she bit her lip. Every time FortyTwo claimed her body, he did everything in his power to make her break her silence. It had become a personal challenge to him. She didn’t mind. It burned away the emptiness of her existence. It torched the ache in her chest where her wounded heart thumped. It made him do things to her she’d never let a living soul do before. Not even… She cut the painful thought dead, focusing instead on the feel of Forty-Two’s tongue and now -- Kirs give her strength -- finger in her cunt. No. Make that two fingers. Each long digit squirmed and wriggled inside her, seeking the sweet spot within as his tongue rolled again and again over her throbbing clit. She shoved her hips higher, forcing her sex harder to his mouth, letting the exquisite fire licking through her body almost consume her. She would never relinquish control completely. Not again. Once was enough. “Stop thinking and let me make you forget.” Forty-Two’s growl sent a shiver up Falynn’s spine and her nipples pinched tight. She looked down her body into his staring eyes, unable to miss the furious light burning in their blue depths. His own desire blazed like an inferno there, and in those flames she saw a determination and hunger so powerful her throat squeezed shut. Kirs! If only…

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She balled her fists, killing the futile wish as ruthlessly as she killed her targets. He might be the only one close to making her scream again, but he could never destroy her pain. She shoved her hips upward, needing him to scour away the old hurt building in her heart. She needed to come. She needed to feel something apart from nothing. “Get out of my head and finish the job.” “Yes, sir.” “Don’t call me sir.” “Yes, Proserpina.” “Don’t call me that either.” Forty-Two chuckled again, the sound both bitter and warm before -- thank Kirs -he returned his very talented mouth to her sex. He sucked at her clit, nibbled and nipped it with his teeth. She bucked, choking back a gasp. He dug his fingers into her flesh and jerked her butt off the mattress, stabbing her anus with his tongue. Her back arched under the overwhelming sensations, forcing shoulders and feet against the sleeping pallet as her fisted hands scrabbled for a hold in the bunched sheets. Shit, he really knew what to do to make her hot. He was aggressive, almost brutal. He took from her with a savage power that made her cunt flood with fresh cream. Sliding his large hands under her hips, he cupped her butt cheeks, squeezing each curve of muscle as he tortured her anus with his tongue. She hissed in a silent breath, feeling her ass grow damp -- painted with the slick lubrication secreted by his tongue. Preparing her for entry. Flaccid, his cock was massive, the phallus more than fitting his seven-foot frame. Erect and stiff with desire, it was the stuff of every sexual being’s fantasy. She knew he was going to penetrate her anally and her pussy grew sodden with anticipation. Anal sex with Forty-Two was like a double dose of concentrated pleasure spiked with pure pain. Incredible, punishing and completely unsentimental. What she needed. What she deserved. An appreciative rumble sounded in her companion’s chest and he yanked her harder to his mouth, lifting her feet from the bed to wrap her legs around his head. His

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hands mauled her ass, her hips. He peppered her tight opening with rapid jabs of his tongue, the thick muscle growing more pointed with each stroke until she felt its slick, rounded tip push into the puckered hole. She clamped her mouth shut, fists tugging at the sheet. She bucked, her wild rhythm in perfect sync with Forty-Two’s tongue. His fingers stretched her butt cheeks further apart, granting his mouth greater access to her anus. He dipped into her, tongue fat and stiff, a slightly smaller replica of the enormous shaft between his solid, steely thighs. By Kirs, she was going to come. Unbidden -- and as always -- an image of Agent Thanatos filled her mind. Raw want shot through her. Raw, tortured want. His eyes had promised so much more than that one moment of heaven. And yet he’d never returned. He’d never broken his word to her once in all her training, and yet he’d never returned. Loss and pain absolute flooded her soul -- at the very second Forty-Two tore his mouth from her ass and sank his cock into her hole. Her orgasm crashed through her, brutal and sudden and more forceful than ever. Accompanied by the cruel, inescapable memory of another climax from a different time and a different place, the rapturous screams of that release echoing in her head even as the silence of this one flayed her wanting heart. She came. Without a sound.

He pumped into her, watching her face, listening for a sound he never heard. A “decommissioned” IAC Type R42 military/combat android, he’d spent his entire existence in battle and now functioned purely for Falynn Mavek, the woman who’d given him life. The only way he knew Falynn was in the throes of an orgasm was the squeezing contractions of her cunt on his shaft, the tortured, haunted expression in her eyes and the violent spike in activity his bio scan detected in her cerebral cortex.

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Still, the base response was enough for Forty-Two’s own orgasm -- a phenomenal feat of bio-engineering achievement -- to surge through his body. The living flesh encompassing his teratanium skeleton flushed, artificial blood pumping through veins engineered to fool even the most astute medico. His balls grew tight, drew higher, closer to his groin, until what felt like an eruption of molten power burst from their swollen mass, hurtling up his long, thick cock. A roar tore from his throat. It rattled the small room and drowned out the sounds of the ship’s engines. He pumped into Falynn, wanting her to scream. Wanting her to surrender to the pleasure he knew he gave her. Wanting her to abandon the control she so fiercely held. She didn’t. As one orgasm after another claimed her, as he drove his cock harder and harder into her tight sphincter, making her grip the sheet of her sleeping pallet with white-knuckled fists, the association neurons of her brain burned white-hot with memories of a man he could never erase. A man who had taken from Falynn the ability to abandon herself to raw emotion. A man presumed dead. Forty-Two was incapable of prayer -- really, whom did an obsolete AI pray to anyway? The Maker? -- but more than once he found himself wishing Unit Zero Agent code name Thanatos alive. He wanted to kill the man himself. Left wounded and malfunctioning on a bloody, corpse-riddled battlefield by the IAC’s military unit after their brutal occupation of Irridia two years ago, he’d been one failed diode away from complete system shut down when Falynn had found him. Her emotionless gaze had flicked over him once, before -- with fluid grace and jarring speed -- she reached into the twisted mess of ribbon cables in his broken neck and deactivated him. When his system came back online he’d discovered he was in a dragonfly-class deep space craft with his E.S.O.U.L program activated. For the first time in his short, violent existence, he felt emotions. Shocked surprise quickly gave way to suspicious confusion. Why? The first word he’d ever spoken. Why had she “saved” him? Why had she activated his emotion sensor operational uplink program?

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She’d never given him an answer. Instead, she’d laid a small mirror on his chest and left the cramped quarters. Stunned amazement smashed away his confusion. The teratanium exo-battle armor encasing all Type R42s was not visible. Not only had the mysterious woman activated his emotion matrix, she’d activated his humanoid camouflage mode as well. He’d been her constant companion ever since. Forty-Two stared down at the Unit Zero assassin writhing in silent sexual rapture beneath him. He would do anything for Falynn. No matter what she asked of him, he would do it. Falynn had given him existence when his makers decided he had none. Falynn had elevated him from a mindless ’droid with but one purpose. Falynn had given him worth. All without explanation, reason or expectation. She didn’t need a protector, but he acted as one anyway. She didn’t need a carer, but he functioned each minute of the day to see her cared for. She asked nothing from him except the raw escape sex gave her from her self-torturing emptiness, and he gave her that willingly. He wanted to give her more. His E.S.O.U.L allowed him to feel, and every emotion he’d experienced since Falynn reactivated him was for her. If only she felt the same way for him. The complicated weave of cables, CPUs and sensors in the centre of his chest cavity grew tight, heavy. One day he would make her scream with sexual pleasure. One day she would break her silence. He moved his hands from her ass cheeks to her hips, slid them up the flat plane of her stomach to palm her breasts. Her body still shuddered from the string of orgasms he’d wrought upon her, vibrating up his arms and setting his circuitry on fire. He moved his fingers to her distended nipples, pinched them with a force both savage and gentle. He was capable of crushing an urydium girder with his fingers alone, but the millions of tiny sensors under his skin, coupled with his bio-readings of Falynn’s body, told him the exact force needed to make her sex flood with fresh juice and her heartbeat quicken.

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Fists bunching the sheet, she rode the climaxes crashing through her body, hips bucking slightly with each shudder that claimed her. A slight flick of her eyes, dilated with constrained pleasure, told him what she wanted, and he complied, dragging one hand from her breast down to the smooth curve of her mons. Staring at her, hungry for the changes in her body only he could detect, he rubbed the pad of his middle finger over her swollen clit. Falynn hissed -- the most noise he’d elicited from her -- and closed her eyes, her breathing rapid and shallow as the last of her orgasms erupted. A haunted expression twisted her face, rapture and self-loathing at once, and she sank her teeth into her bottom lip. As always, controlling her release. Her response. A surge of bitter disappointment tainted the liquid electricity shooting through Forty-Two’s system. Once again, he’d failed. He slowed his penetrating thrusts, letting his E.S.O.U.L control his actions. If required, he could continue to fuck Falynn until his power-unit depleted, but it didn’t take the comprehensive readings of her bio-rhythms to tell him she was satiated. The soft, distant light in her eyes, the relaxing of her fists on the sheet, the long, slow exhalation of breath told him he’d given her what she’d wanted, what she’d needed. He’d brought her to multiple climaxes -- six, to be precise -- and now it was over. Until she next required escape from her demons -- demons who always wore the mask of her former trainer and mentor -- he was just her co-pilot and companion. A combat ’droid in the guise of a man, protecting a woman who needed no protection. And he would never tell her he wanted more. “You are, without doubt, the most tenacious lover I’ve ever had.” The calmly stated words raised Forty-Two’s head and he met Falynn’s heavylidded gaze. “Would that have anything to do with the fact I have a million-year power lifetime?” Sitting up with fluid ease, Falynn raked her fingers through her tousled hair, scraping the long dark strands back into a tight knot at her nape. She cocked a finely

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arched eyebrow, fixing him with a level look, the consummate assassin once more. “No. It has everything to do with the fact you don’t like to admit defeat.” Forty-Two straightened from the sleeping station and gave her a wide grin, ignoring the thick tension squeezing his E.S.O.U.L’s core processor. “R42s were not designed to admit defeat. Defeat is a human weakness.” Falynn rolled her eyes, an easy if somewhat exasperated smile curling her lips. “You ’droids think you are so superior.” Forty-Two grinned back before retrieving his trousers from the nearby counter. “That is because we are.” He casually flung the worn leather breeches over his shoulder and affected a smug expression. “Well, not the JCN-01s,” he said before turning away from the bed to cross to the door. “Those walking calculators are pathetic.”

Falynn shook her head, watching Forty-Two head toward her ship’s cockpit, naked ass bunching and flexing with each stride, wide shoulders almost brushing the passageway’s walls. They would be arriving at their destination soon, and the ’droid made it his business to have The Wisp ready for any unexpected boarding. That essentially meant checking the array of weapons hidden in various places throughout the small vessel in case of an attack her skill and his size and programming couldn’t handle. In all honesty, Falynn didn’t believe such a situation could arise, but she didn’t stop him in his task. She knew why he did it. Rising from her sleeping station, she crossed her quarters and collected her suit from its crumpled place on the floor. She hadn’t told Forty-Two she wanted to be fucked. Hard, fast, brutal fucking that would scour away her painful memories. As always, his precise calculations of her bio-rhythms alerted him to her needs before she could part her lips. She hadn’t expected him to be quite so savage in undressing her though. She trailed the soft and extremely supple blood-red leather unitard over her spread fingers, convinced she would find a tear in the indestructible garment. Nothing. Still as immaculate as the day she’d collected it from UZ supplies.

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Slipping into the all-in-one second-skin, she activated its fastening device, nipples pinching into twin hard peaks as it zipped closed from navel to neck with a slight tickling sensation. She jerked on matching, custom designed boots with the concealed neuronspikes in their toe, slid her X’tharian gutting blade into its holster on her left thigh and exited the room, heading for the cockpit. She didn’t consult the small mirror beside the door before exiting, despite Forty-Two scoring the flesh on her collarbone with his blunt nails as he’d stripped her. She never looked at her reflection any more. There were only so many times you could look into empty eyes, a killer’s eyes, before conviction became self-contempt. Tugging her hair free from the knot at her nape, she braided the straight black curtain into a long plait, securing the end with a tiny circle of razor elastic before letting it slide over her shoulder to lightly slap the small of her back. She’d blinded more than one opponent with the minute blades. No one expected to be attacked by hair, no matter how seasoned a fighter they were. Dropping into the pilot’s chair beside Forty-Two, she studied the star-spotted blackness of space outside The Wisp before turning to the ’droid. Somewhere between her quarters and the cockpit, he’d dressed -- as much as Forty-Two ever did. Long, thick legs were encased in black leather combat trousers and calf-high boots. That was it. “Where are we at?” Forty-Two stabbed a navi-key on the control deck and then turned to her, the diodes in his eyes flashing a cheeky bright blue. “Four point seven zero one clicks from destination.” He gave her a broad grin. “What’s the game plan this time?” Falynn shrugged, leaning back in her seat and crossing her ankles on The Wisp’s control deck. “The target’s male. Standard seduce and terminate procedure.” A gleam of iridescent green glowed in Forty-Two’s eyes and then he chuckled, running his hand over his hairless scalp. “And here I was thinking you had dressed like a Nil Raja to impress me.”

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Falynn returned her attention to the void before her, feeling just as devoid of life. “Not dressed to impress, Forty-Two,” she murmured. “Dressed to kill.” The ’droid regarded her, eyes glowing a muted violet. As always, Falynn waited for him to say something, her gut tight. She knew his bio-scans told him exactly what her body was doing, but did they tell him what her heart was feeling? Huh. What heart? “Intel?” Forty-Two’s question made her start and she scowled. Kirs, she was being pathetic. Shaking her head, she pulled an annoyed face. “Very little. No name. No physical description. Just a location and employment title. Sector Seven A, Fourth Quadrant, Secular System. Spaceport Adana. Head bouncer for a bar called Haze.” She straightened in her seat, and adjusted The Wisp’s zeo output, kicking up the vessel’s sub-space slip. “The job has one interesting twist though. The target is in possession of an IAC bio-weapon. After the hit, I need to procure the weapon and return it to IAC HQ immediately.” Forty-Two’s eyebrows rose. “May I assume the intel on the bio-weapon is vague?” Falynn nodded, returning her feet to their previous position on the control deck. “Just as vague as the hit. All I have to go on is the target has it in his possession and it’s called M.E.Lii.” She frowned. “Odd name for a weapon if you ask me.” A low-pitched siren sounded and Forty-Two straightened, hitting a small key beside the helm to silence the alarm. “Odd or no, the fun is just about to begin. We will be docking at Spaceport Adana in one point five nine clicks.” He grinned at Falynn. “Time to get your game face on.”

Chapter Three “I don’t want to.” Sabian kept his expression calm and his pace even, flicking Emylie a quick look before hitching her school bag higher onto his shoulder. It contained little. The apple he’d bought her last night, a small holo-slip containing a continuous loop of K’Mere singing the Old Earth obscure hit “Stray Cat Blues” during a particularly intoxicated karaoke session, and an innocent-looking com-badge that was really a neurondestabilizer. He didn’t like the thought of Emylie with such an effective weapon, but he liked the thought of her being unprotected even less. And he couldn’t keep her locked up in their apartment around the clock, no matter how efficient Mare’ree was. To do so would make him just as cruel as the IAC scientist he’d rescued her from. He placed his hand gently on the back of her head, the soft coolness of her hair like a cloud against his calloused palm. “It won’t be for long, Em. Just an hour after school. Besides, you should be having fun with your friends. Jymia seems like a very nice girl and her parents are --” He stopped himself before saying “harmless.” “Nice.” He cringed at the lame recovery. “Too.” A frown creased Emylie’s forehead and she turned her head away from him, staring stubbornly at Adana through the passageway’s expansive portholes as though the small red planet had suddenly become the most important thing in her world. “I don’t want to.” Smoothing his hand down to her shoulder, he tugged her closer to his body, giving her a small grin. “You can’t spend every waking minute with me, Em, otherwise you’ll turn into a cranky old man with wrinkles all over your face and hair sprouting from your ears.”

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Emylie wrapped her arm around his thigh, her small fingers gripping the back of his leg with surprising force. “You don’t have wrinkles,” she muttered, stare still locked on the distant planet. He laughed. “You’re right. I don’t have wrinkles, and I hope my ears are hairfree. But you need to spend some time with children your own age, Em. You’ll have fun. I promise.” “I won’t.” Sabian suppressed a sigh. He understood her reticence. For three years she’d been held captive by the IAC. Experimented on, inflicted with pain she still refused to divulge. He’d taken her away from that, saved her, but he could never remove the memories. For Emylie, the minutes away from his side, from the safety of his presence, were long, anxious moments fraught with the possibility of recapture. It tore him apart inside but he didn’t know what else to do. She did need to interact with children her own age. For her psychological health and emotional development. She needed to learn how to laugh and play and be a kid. He couldn’t teach her that. He didn’t know what it was to be a kid. His own childhood had been spent in the Phase Pits, being beaten and brutalized in pursuit of becoming his people’s ultimate killer. He could teach her how to tear open a man’s throat with her hands, but how to play hop-stick? Fri’ac, he wasn’t meant for this kind of emotional attachment. “Mare’ree could collect me from school?” He looked down at Emylie. The fear in her eyes, swirling there like a building storm, squeezed his throat tight but he shook his head. “Mare’ree is due for her scheduled maintenance --” he placed his finger on Emylie’s lips just as she opened them, “-- and before you ask, no. You can’t go with her. Level 18 is no place for a little girl. Even one carrying a destabilizer.” Emylie scowled. “What’s the good of teaching me how to look after myself if I’m never allowed to go anywh…” Her diatribe faded away, cheeks growing pink as the flaw in her line of reasoning became obvious to her.

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Sabian laughed and gave her a gentle nudge with his hip. “You’ll have lots of fun with Jymia, you’ll see.” He tapped the small metal band wrapped around her wrist. “And I will be just a com-link away. If you want me I’ll be by your side in a second.” And he would. Even if he had to Call to do so. She stared up at him, eyes wide, face serious. “Promise?” He smiled. “Have I ever broken a promise to you?” The muscles in her tiny body relaxed, a little, and she gave him a small smile in return. “No.” “And I never will.” He stopped walking, running a slow, thorough inspection over the immediate area. Children of all species skipped and chatted and giggled as they streamed into Emylie’s school, some kissing and hugging their parents goodbye, some casting nervous glances at Sabian, some waving to their parent who cast nervous glances at Sabian. A few smiled at Emylie as they walked by, one young Zondoran boy giving her a shy wave. Her teacher, a middle-aged Ezelian with a well-known dislike for the IAC and no criminal record Sabian could uncover, stood at the entryway, greeting the students as they passed her. She raised her head from one particularly enthusiastic child and gave Sabian a quick nod. She will be watched. Sabian nodded back. No one on ’Port Adana knew who either of them really were, nor Emylie’s relationship to Sabian, but they all knew one thing. When it came to Emylie, you didn’t piss him off. Turning back to the little girl hugging his leg, he dropped into a crouch, holding her fingers loosely in his. “You know why I took the day shift, today?” he asked, looking into her eyes. “So I could come get you from Jymia’s as soon as I finish work.” She stared at him for a still moment, solemn, serious. “As soon as you finish work.” Sabian dipped his head a little closer to hers. “Oh, and watch out for Frejik. I think he has a crush on you.”

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Bright red heat flooded Emylie’s cheeks and she burst into giggles, her small body squirming with innocent embarrassment and delight as she took her school bag from his shoulder. “Ewww.” With a grin and a tap of his finger on her nose, Sabian stood. The hardest part of his day started now. Walking away from her. Leaving her. Removing her from his line of sight, his protection for seven hours or more. He drew in a deep breath and took a step back, watching Emylie turn and move toward her school’s entry. He didn’t move, knowing the morning’s routine was not yet complete. Five steps away from him, she turned around, eyeing him with grave earnestness. “Are we safe?” He smiled. “We are safe.” She smiled back, the sun bursting through the clouds, hitched her bag onto her shoulder and walked into the school. Sabian watched her disappear through the entryway and then turned away. Haze awaited.

*** Falynn draped her left arm across the back of the seat, raising a squat glass of Caribbean Black Label Rum to her lips with her right as she studied the crowded bar. Haze definitely was popular. Species from every corner of the known galaxy packed the place, drinking, dancing, playing ropki and making out. A number watched a large Kitali slur his way through a karaoke tune, cheering as the creature swiveled his -whoops, no make that her hips -- in time to the slow, infectious beat. “That is a cat singing on the stage, correct?” Forty-Two asked, raising his voice to be heard over the din. “My optical sensors are not malfunctioning?” “Your optical sensors are not malfunctioning.” Falynn cocked an eyebrow and took a sip of rum. “She is singing, although I don’t think she’ll be signing any recording contracts soon.” She scanned the crowd, studying each patron with seemingly indifferent attention. The head bouncer might be somewhere in the bar but she didn’t think so. Not

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yet, at least. Something about the uneasy, wary tension in the barkeeper’s face told her the woman’s main muscle wasn’t present and accounted for. Lifting her glass to her lips, she swallowed the remainder of her drink and then stood. “I’m going to get another,” she said, giving Forty-Two a loaded look: Intel time. The ’droid nodded, crossing his arms and affecting a bored expression as he watched the Kitali wail her way into another song. To anyone looking at him, FortyTwo was just another patron. Falynn knew otherwise. She weaved her way through the crowd, brushing off a drunken Antillan’s advances with polite force before sliding onto a vacant stool at the bar. Ordering her drink, she twisted on her seat, casting the muscled Rellian beside her a long look. “Is it always this busy?” The Rellian flicked a dismissive look her way. And then looked again, lips stretching into a wide smile as he swiveled his seat to face her. “Always,” he answered, leaning slightly toward her, bright orange eyes skimming over her body in obvious approval. “They come for the booze and stay for the entertainment.” Falynn lifted her drink to her mouth, touching the rim of her glass with the tip of her tongue in a slight caress. “The Kitali?” The Rellian’s stare jerked from her mouth to her eyes, his own tongue wetting his lips with a quick lick. “That, and the show that usually takes place later in the night. There’s a running bet between the regulars on how many ribs my boss will break on the first problem customer he deals with.” Pulse quickening, Falynn shifted slightly in her seat, leaning closer to her new, chatty friend. She placed her fingers on the top of his leg, skimming the bulge between his thighs with her fingernails. “Your boss?” The Rellian nodded, nostrils flaring slightly. “The head bouncer.” “And when does that show begin?” The Rellian chuckled, repositioning his legs so his knees framed hers. “Depends on Talano’s mood. If someone’s stupid enough to piss him off when he first starts his shift it could be within the next twenty minutes.”

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Falynn suppressed a cold grin. Kirs was smiling on her tonight. If all went well she and Forty-Two could be back on The Wisp within the hour. “He’s that nasty, is he?” She slid forward slightly on her stool, pressing her thighs more firmly against the Rellian’s knees. She took another sip of her rum, gazing at her newfound source of intel with rapt amazement over the rim of her glass. Tell me more, her eyes said. You are so fascinating and I want to sleep with you. The Rellian shook his head, his hands finding their way to her hips, followed by her ass. “Not nasty. Just fast. And big. And strong. No one fucks with Talano.” He grinned, tugging her closer to his crotch. “All his team are the same. Strong. And big. Real big.” He gave her ass a squeeze. “Not all of us are opposed to being fucked with though… if you get my meaning.” Falynn trailed her fingertips over the bunched curve of his thigh, nibbling on her bottom lip with her teeth as she pushed her breasts further forward. “Oh, I want to know more. When do you finish?” The Rellian’s nostrils flared wider. “As soon as the boss lets me.” Falynn pouted, sliding her hands from his legs even as she thrust her breasts further forward. “And when will that be?” “How ’bout I ask him?” He looked at something -- someone -- standing behind her. “Can I finish early t’night, Boss?” “No, Diirch,” a very familiar voice rumbled. “You can’t.” Falynn’s throat slammed shut. Her eyes widened, every muscle in her body locking tight. She stared at Diirch, telling herself she’d heard wrong. It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be. Of course it is. How could you ever mistake his voice? Diirch pulled a face, and then turned back to Falynn, straightening from his stool to give her ass one last fondle. “Maybe later.” He shot his boss -- Talano? -- a look almost bordering on reverence. “I’m on the door, Boss.” With one last regretful inspection of Falynn’s body, the Rellian pushed his way into the crowd, heading in the direction of Haze’s entry.

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Falynn watched him go from the corner of her eye, unable to move. She felt the bar’s head bouncer standing behind her. She knew who it was. She felt him. In her gut. In her sex. In her heart. The one she always swore she didn’t have. “I’m not surprised UZ sent you.” Unit Zero Agent Thanatos’s deep, smooth voice slipped into her ears, a smoky caress of her senses. Her nipples pinched hard, her breath caught in her throat. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry, and gazed blankly at the empty stool before her, the noise of Haze fading… fading until all she could hear was the sound of Thanatos’s slow, even breath and the deafening beat of her heart. Kirs. What the fuck did she do now? You turn around and look at him. Forcing a calm expression on her face, she pivoted on her stool, fixing the man towering over her with an indifferent glare. He hadn’t changed. He was still as menacing and gorgeous as the last time she’d seen him. “Well, I am the best assassin the IAC has.” A sardonic, barely perceptible grin played with the corners of his mouth. A mouth she felt every night in her dreams and cursed every morning she awoke. “Second best.” With the force of an exploding quasar, every second of worry, despair and misery she’d felt since Thanatos’s disappearance three years ago smashed through her. She leapt to her feet, her concealed gutting blade in her right hand before the soles of her boots hit the floor. Or at least it should have been. Instead, in a blur, Thanatos gripped her wrist, pinning her hand to her thigh. His silver stare locked on her eyes, his hard, massive frame pressed to her body. Immobilizing her. He shook his head, a slow, condescending and altogether smug side-to-side motion that never broke their eye contact. “Now, now, Proserpina.” His voice caressed her senses. “I thought I taught you to control your emotions.”

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Falynn stared at him. Hate roared through her. Hate and fury and unending rage. He wasn’t dead. After all this time, he wasn’t dead. Sucking in a silent, steadying breath, she lifted her chin, letting a mask of bored disdain fall over her face. “Perhaps you are not as good as you thought.” His gaze dropped to her lips, an arrogant smile curling his. “I am.” A rush of memories consumed Falynn, too powerful to suppress. His hands on her body, his lips and teeth and tongue pushing her toward a sexual precipice, his thrusting cock sending her over in a screaming, moaning climax. She sucked in a short breath, red heat filling her cheeks, wet heat flooding her sex. By Kirs, she wanted to kill him. Isn’t that the idea? As if knowing exactly what was going through her head, Thanatos drew his head closer to hers, his silver eyes holding her gaze, his breath a warm kiss on her lips. “Go back to UZ. Tell them you couldn’t find the target. Tell them their intel was wrong. Tell them Sabian Talano doesn’t exist.” She stared at him, the distinct scent of his body seeping into her very being. “And if I don’t?” His eyes grew cold. “I will kill you. And then disassemble the out-moded R42 currently standing behind me who thinks it’s your protector.” Falynn gasped, snapping her stare from Thanatos’s face to the ’droid behind him. Forty-Two’s eyes burned bright red, murderous rage etching his chiseled face. He reached for her ex-mentor, hands a devastating blur of bio-mechanical speed. But Thanatos moved quicker. So fast he seemed to be in two places at once; standing between them both, eyes fixed on her, and standing behind Forty-Two, the fingers of his right hand hooked behind the ’droid’s ear. “Don’t!” Falynn yelled, just as Thanatos flicked his wrist. There was a soft click, so low it was almost inaudible, and Forty-Two’s blazing red eyes turned black. Devoid of any light at all. He slumped forward from the waist, his massive body lifeless. Deactivated.

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She tore her stare from the motionless ’droid, ripping her neuron-destabilizer from its hidden holster, searching the crowded bar for her old teacher. Nowhere. She stood still, too stunned to move. Kirs, how could he get away from her so -A glimpse of someone tall, almost as tall as Forty-Two, with short, dirty-blonde hair and broad shoulders moving with obvious haste through Haze’s entryway grabbed her attention. She bolted, shoving her way through the throng, destabilizer still drawn, mindless of the indignant shouts and insults. Bursting from the bar, she scanned the immediate area, wishing to Kirs she had Forty-Two’s bio-rhythms reader. Being able to zero in on Thanatos’s heat waves amongst those on the thoroughfare would make it easier to track him. Falynn ground her teeth. Fuck. Where was he? Taking a guess, she took off down the port passageway, destabilizer in hand. She had to find him. If she didn’t, he’d disappear again. Or worse still, come after her. She wasn’t ready to die. Not yet. Heart thumping, mouth dry, she sprinted along the walkway, desperate to catch another glimpse of his towering form in the spaceport’s eclectic multitude. The passageway led her deeper along Level 7, past the row of fake Nil Raja offering their mouths to whoever had the credits to pay, past the slavers hawking their “product” outside the slave auctions. Deeper into the spaceport -- with no sign she was running in the right direction. “Fuck.” Falynn ground to a halt, sucking in a ragged breath as she searched the crowd streaming past her. He could be anywhere. For all she knew he’d ducked into one of the small sex-den rentals lining the common-way. Kirs! For all she knew he could be on a completely different level! She shook her head, disgust and contempt boiling through her veins. “Fuck!” she spat again. “Gladly,” a passing human dressed in a master merchant’s robes answered. “How much?”

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“You couldn’t afford her, Dollavera.” Thanatos materialized from the mass, intense silver stare locked on her face. He stopped directly in front of her, thighs brushing hers, his heat wrapping around her like a hungry mist. “Besides,” he continued, expression devoid of any humor, “she’s taken.” The merchant raised his eyebrows before shooting Thanatos a nervous look. “Sorry, Mister Talano.” He dropped his attention to his feet, scampering away with harried haste. Falynn gazed at her former lover, the slight contact of his thighs on hers making her blood hot and her pussy damp. Kirs, she couldn’t help it. She wanted to fuck him. She wanted to be fucked by him. Needed it. More than she needed breath in her lungs. “Am I taken?” Thanatos’s eyes flared silver fire. “You’re about to be.” And with that, he grabbed her ass and yanked her against his body, crushing her mouth with his.

Chapter Four She tasted like ambrosia. Like sin and heaven and pure pleasure all at once. He drove his tongue past her open lips, deepening his possession of her mouth. Fri’ac, she tasted good. As good as he remembered. Sinking his fingers into her butt cheeks, he jerked her harder to his cock, wanting her to feel the rigid pole his cock had become. She was going to try and kill him later, of that he had no doubt, but that didn’t stop his body reacting to her. He’d spent years hungering for her, every moment of every training session, every second of every hit they’d shared. To expect his body to behave itself now? With her pussy ground to his cock? Her tongue in his mouth? Take this opportunity, Talano. Fuck her out of your system and then fix the problem she presents once and for all. The raw thought surged through him, turning the lust in his veins to something darker. Bitter. More potent. He growled, tearing his mouth free of their kiss to stare into her face. “I’m giving you one last chance, Proserpina. Leave ’Port Adana. Now.” Falynn shook her head. “No.” Sabian felt his heart thump in his chest. “Very well,” he said. Low. Completely calm. Before she could move, or realize her mistake, he snatched the back of her thighs and hauled her feet off the ground, wrapping her legs around his hips and slamming her groin to his. He spun about, the speed of his turn impacting on their center of gravity to grind her cunt harder to his cock. Falynn’s nails sank into his shoulders as she clung to him,

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bruising his flesh through the leather of his jacket. White pain licked through his body, a pleasurable sting that pumped fresh, hungry blood into his rigid shaft. “Kirs, Thanatos!” Falynn gasped, wriggling in his hold. The soft junction of her thighs rubbed his erection, her excitement already dampening the crotch of the bloodred suit she wore. “What are you doing?” Sabian gave her a cold grin. “This.” Mindless to the startled stares of those surrounding them, he crossed the passageway, drove his boot against the control panel of the nearest sex-den to activate the opening mechanism, and carried her through the newly opened doorway into the dark room. “Lock,” he said two steps in. A sharp hiss cut the air, followed by a sharper click as the door slid shut behind him and a dim light flickered into existence. It illuminated the wide bed dominating the small room, and all the sanitized apparatus in sealed display units on the walls. Without preamble or ceremony, Sabian threw his former student onto the bed. She landed on her ass, arms and legs flailing as she fought for balance. In a heartbeat, she found it, springing back to her feet to glare at him, sharp blue eyes burning with indignant anger and base desire. She wanted him. Just as much as he wanted her. And it annoyed the hell out of her. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Sabian chuckled soundlessly. Fri’ac, she was beautiful. Even pissed off, she was the most gorgeous female he’d ever encountered. What a shame she was going to try and kill him. Turning his back on her, he crossed to the den’s control panel beside the door, withdrawing his credit chip from a pocket in his jacket and swiping it across the scanner. “Full service.” A rapid series of chirps followed his instruction, the only sound to be heard as the sex-den’s processor deducted the appropriate credit charge from his balance and produced a receipt.

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Sabian pocketed both. And then spun around and grabbed Falynn’s right wrist… just as she was about to bury the hooked blade into his ear. He shook his head, reaching up to unfurl her fingers from the blade’s curved hilt. “Tsk, tsk, Proserpina.” He gazed into her turbulent stare. He removed the dagger from her grip and tossed it aside, uncaring where it landed. “Very amateurish. Perhaps I need to refresh your training.” Falynn’s eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring slightly as she drew in a slow, even breath, the bones of her wrist twitching under his palm as she clenched her fist. “Fuck you.” “Yes. That is the plan.” He flicked his wrist, spinning her around until her back faced him. Whipping his free arm around her torso, he flattened his hand against the firm plane of her stomach and yanked her backward, smashing her back against his torso. His throbbing cock nestled perfectly in the crevice of her ass cheeks, the second-skin suit she wore leaving little barrier. Even through the leather of his trousers he could feel the toned curve of each cheek hug the form of his growing erection. A wave of hot, hungry desire rolled through him and he smoothed the hand on her belly upward, closing his fingers around her left breast, taking possession of its swollen weight, her nipple a rock-hard point under his palm. Sabian pulled in a breath, the distinct scent of her arousal filling his nostrils, his being. His head swam for a split second. Fuck, he could never forget the perfume of her desire. He’d taken it into his body every training session in the holo-dojo, a soft, subtle intoxicating muskiness he’d grown addicted to. She’d lusted after him from the very first moment, just as he had her. It had taken all his control to not throw her onto the nearest surface and bury himself up to the balls in her tight wetness every time he was near her. Falynn arched into his hold, thrusting her breasts forward and her ass backward, grinding into his cock as she placed her free hand on top of his. She guided his caress on her breast, making him cup and squeeze the heavy swell. Making him massage its

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soft, full form in slow, deliberate circles that sent ribbons of delicious heat through his body down into his groin. “You always were an arrogant SOP,” she stated, her fingers threading through his, her ass sliding up and down the length of his clothes-trapped shaft in a rhythm mimicking the one she set with her hand on her breast. He dragged in another deep breath, heat flooding his balls… and almost lost his grip on Falynn’s wrist when she hooked her nails into the pressure point in his palm and twisted in his hold. She spun about, the arm he’d held pinned behind her back now skewed out to the side, her other arm locked straight as she gripped his wrist in a fierce hold and stared straight at him. “But I’ve come a long way since you disappeared.” With a blurring speed he couldn’t help but admire, she lifted her right leg and smashed her heel against his chest, launching herself back and upward, flipping head over heels. The fluid motion tore both their grips free of the other, and Sabian leapt forward, driving his shoulder into Falynn’s gut as she landed, feet perfectly steady, on the floor. He drove her across the room, smashing her against the wall with brutal force. Her teeth clicked together and he captured the sound with his mouth, crushing her lips under his with a savage kiss. Her hands knotted in his hair, forcing his head still as she drove her tongue into his mouth, meeting the kiss with her own, demanding more. Lashing his teeth with her tongue before biting down on his bottom lip. He hissed in a breath and jerked his head free, the coppery tang of blood filling his mouth. Lifting his fingers to his lip, he gave Falynn a quick grin. “I should have remembered you bite.” “Of course you should have,” she replied, breasts heaving, cheeks pink. “You taught me to.” A snort rumbled up Sabian’s throat, the sound suddenly lost in his own grunt as she lunged forward and smashed her knee into his solar plexus. White pain erupted in his chest, stealing his breath. He snapped straight, snatching her right wrist in his fist before she could strike him, yanking it down as he swiped his foot in a swift, hard arc against her ankle.

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She stumbled, falling sideways before flexing her arms and throwing herself into the fall, executing a graceful cartwheel that threw him completely off balance. His face hit the floor first, followed by his shoulder, a shudder rocking his body as he came to rest face down. Before he could move, Falynn rammed her booted heel into his back, right between his shoulder blades, and he bit back a cry of surprise. “You fucking left me!” She panted, spiked heel pushing harder into his back. “You took me to the Nine Levels of Sexual Heaven then vanished. Not a fucking word. I thought you were dead.” Sabian twisted under her drilling foot, staring up at her from the corner of his sweat-stung eye. “I left you?” he ground out through clenched teeth, shutting the slicing pain -- and unexpected joy at her admission -- from his mind. She’d improved since he’d dropped off the radar. A lot. Fri’ac, at this rate he’d need to Call just to stay alive! “Is this why you’re trying to kill me? An emotional reason? Didn’t you learn anything I taught you?” A haunted emptiness filled Falynn’s eyes and she twisted her heel deeper into his back. “I learnt how to kill a man,” she growled. “Isn’t that enough?” “No.” Sabian shook his head. “It isn’t.” A shimmer rippled through him. A tearing of every molecule in his body. Time froze for an infinitesimal moment… before he tore it apart, ripping its very fabric as he Called his dimensional twin, two men from different possibilities occupying the same temporal plane. He moved. Both of him. Whipping his arm out, he flipped sideways, smashing his elbow into Falynn’s knee as his “other” grabbed her wrist and flung her against the wall before she could regain her phenomenal balance. The back of her skull connected with the sheet metal, the den’s array of sex-toys and devices rattling in their display units from the shuddering impact. Her palms smacked the wall beside her as she fought the g-force slamming her body backward, her long, thick plait slapping her own cheek, drawing blood.

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Sabian charged the short distance between them, realigning time and his dual existence as he did so, until only one man occupied one time frame. The Call returned. He snared Falynn’s wrists and pinned them to the wall on either side of her head, slamming his body to hers. “Learning how to kill was never the lesson,” he stated, heart pounding, blood roaring. “What was the lesson then, Thanatos?” Falynn asked, her normally cool, composed voice husky with hollow anger. Her pulse hammered under his palms, a driving, powerful beat that vibrated all the way down his arms into his chest. “What were you teaching me all those years? Tell me, because I really need to know.” He gazed into her face, wanting to take away the pain he saw there. “Learning how to be alive.”

His mouth took possession of hers. As forcefully as ever. His tongue plunged past her lips, tasted her, taunted her. He yanked her arms higher above her head, the action thrusting her breasts harder into his chest as he rolled his tongue over hers. Falynn whimpered, the inaudible sound trapped in her tight throat. Kirs, she had to stop him. Stop him? Why? Because you have to kill him. Because you’re not his inferior anymore. Because you’re over him. Because he will break your heart again. The last thought cut like a photon blade, slicing into her chest and stealing her breath. No. She couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t do this to her again. She had a job to do. Thanatos tore his mouth free of her lips, staring into her face with eyes that burned silver fire. “You can think about how you’re going to kill me later,” he growled, his fists closing tighter on her wrists, his cock pressed harder to her mons. “After I’ve made you come with my mouth and my fingers and my dick.”

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The statement sent a ribbon of concentrated rapture into Falynn’s core. She ignored the base response, squirming underneath him in an attempt to escape his hold, the wall behind her cold on her ass, his body a hot brand on her belly. “I know how I’m going to kill you,” she snarled, wishing to all the hells her sex would stop squeezing and fluttering and contracting with pleasure as though Thanatos’s thick, long cock was already there. Shifting his weight slightly, her ex-mentor rolled his hips upward, stroking the bulge of his erection against the curve of her pussy. “So this is a standard seduce and terminate? Again, I thought I’d taught you better.” Falynn bucked, trying to dislodge him. Really? Sure you aren’t trying to get his cock closer to your clit? She bared her teeth, traitorous heat pooling between her thighs at the thought. “I’m pretty certain your last lesson was seduce and run away, Thanatos, but I could be wrong.” His lips curled in a small smile, his eyes unreadable as he pressed his body harder to hers. “Unit Zero Agent code name Thanatos died three years ago, Proserpina.” “So what do I call you now? Casper?” His head drew closer to hers, his breath a warm tickle on her cheek. Tugging her hands together, he ensnared both wrists in one inescapable fist, smoothing his free hand down her arm until his fingers skimmed the upward curve of her left breast. “Talano,” he murmured against her lips. “When you scream with release that’s the name to burst from your lips. The name to shake the Nine Heavens and shatter the stars.” She stared into his eyes, seeing her tiny inverted reflection captured in their silver depths. Her heart thumped, her pussy lips throbbed. Kirs, what was she doing? Kill him. Kill the arrogant SOP. Now! She coiled her muscles, ready to strike… and wrapped her legs around his hips, driving his cock to her spread, sodden cunt.

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His mouth claimed hers again, their teeth clicking as their tongues fought. His hand squeezed her breast, his knuckles pinching the hard tip of her nipple through her suit with ungentle pressure. Red, scalding pleasure rolled through her and she slammed her hips forward, yanking her locked ankles into his ass to drive his cock harder to her cunt. She tore her mouth free of his kiss, rolling her head to the side to offer him the bowed column of her neck. He took it, his lips and teeth and tongue scoring a line along her jaw, then up to her ear to explore its formation and down to the sensitive dip between her collarbones. Falynn dragged in a ragged breath, eyes fixed blindly on the den’s ceiling. A wet, potent heat flooded through her and her pussy contracted again, wanting to be filled. Wanting to be stretched and possessed by Talano’s thick, rigid cock. She bit back a moan, clenching her fists. Damn him. He might be able to dominate her body, but she would not cry out. She would not give him the satisfaction. Talano lifted his head from her neck, eyes shimmering. “Tell me you want me to fuck you, Proserpina.” He pushed the molten pole of his erection to her cunt. “Tell me you want to be fucked.” She glared at him, pulse pounding, breath shallow. “You know I do, you bay’schtk!” Talano yanked her arms higher, sliding his hand down her torso between their bodies to cup the curve of her sex. He stroked her swollen pussy lips through the thin material of her suit, the corners of his mouth twitching at what he felt. “Say it.” Falynn ground her teeth, meeting his stare with silent simmering rage. And ravenous, licentious hunger. The sides of his mouth twitching more, Talano moved his finger to the little bud of her clit, caressing it through her suit. Scalding pleasure shot into the pit of Falynn’s stomach, twisting into an exquisite knot of base need. She choked back a gasp, refusing to break his hypnotic, knowing gaze. “Say it, Proserpina. Tell me you need to be fucked. Hard and absolute and without mercy. Tell me you need to be fucked and used and dominated.”

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Scalding, blistering heat consumed her. Not from anger at Talano’s arrogant command, but at the very truth of his words. She did want to be fucked. She wanted him to use her body. She wanted to be dominated and controlled by the only man she’d ever respected. The only living soul she’d ever trusted. Talano flicked her clit with his finger before nudging her sex with the bulbous head of his concealed shaft. His lips brushed hers, a taunting, teasing contact. “Say it,” he ordered on a breath. Falynn swallowed, the lump in her throat as tight as the squirming tension in her cunt. “I need to be fucked,” she whispered back. “I want you to fuck me.” Talano’s nostrils flared. “I know.” He moved. So quickly it appeared, once again, as if there were two of him. One pinning her to the wall, the other standing right beside her, arms raised above his head, his silver eyes shimmering with an iridescent glow. A sharp click filled the room, followed immediately by the icy burn of metal wrapping around Falynn’s wrists. She jerked her head from the surreal twin vision of her ex-mentor, staring in stunned horror -- and exploding excitement -- at the handcuffs locked around her wrists. Handcuffs attached by a short but solid chain to a thick bar protruding from the wall. Wet heat flooded Falynn’s cunt and she forced away a low whimper, returning her attention to Talano. Just the one man, no matter how her eyes played tricks on her, but he’d done what no one before him had. He’d caught her. “Let me go.” With a low chuckle, Talano slid his hand, the one that had held her arms above her head, down to her torso, moving with unhurried conceit to the plunging V of her neckline. “You are wearing entirely too many items of clothing.” The calmly spoken statement sent a shiver through Falynn. As did the small gutting blade suddenly appearing in his hand with a flick of his wrist. He pressed the lethally sharp tip of the knife to her chest, indenting her flesh in a tiny dip before slicing her flight suit open from neck to navel with slow, languid ease. “Better.” He slipped the ruined garment apart to cup her breasts, rolling each nipple between thumb and forefinger, his gaze locked firmly on her face. She knew he

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watched, waiting for a response. Waiting for her to succumb. She returned his unwavering gaze, even as her body thrummed with the agonizing pleasure consuming her. Her legs still wrapped around his hips, her ankles still crossed to hold him to the junction of her spread thighs. It was a position of power. One she could exploit. With a minute change in her position and a simple twist of her hips, she could snap his spine. But the aching throb in her core, the sodden fire in her cunt, stopped her. Instead, she tightened her muscles, drew her knees up to bring him closer into her hold. The captive imprisoning the subjugator, as surely as the captor imprisoned her. A sudden light ignited in Talano’s eyes. Recognition of what might have been his fate if she’d chosen to do so. His nostrils flared again, a spasm thrusting the thick, hard length of his cock harder to her sex. Slowly, slowly, he lowered his head, until, gaze still locked on hers, he closed his lips around one puckered, aching nipple. Falynn closed her eyes, her lips parting in a silent cry. She arched her back, pushing her cunt forward, feeling her juices flow from its heavy, wanting folds. Closing her fingers around the cuff’s chain, she levered herself deeper into Talano’s embrace, wishing she could tangle her fingers in the shaggy mess of his hair. She wanted to hold his head to her breast. She wanted him to suck and bite on its distended tip until she came. Kirs, how does he do this to you? Lifting his head slightly, Talano blew a fine stream of cool breath onto her wet nipple, his cupping hands holding her breasts together so the wicked stimulation could prepare her other nipple for what was to come. It pinched into an eager tip, and he dragged the pad of his thumb over its puckered form. Falynn clenched her jaw, stopping the groan of carnal delight from sounding in her throat. She sucked in a ragged breath, struggling to control her response. Talano’s gaze returned to her face, that knowing light blazing in his eyes once more. He extended his tongue past his lips, touching it gently to her rock-hard nipple, a soft chuckle vibrating in his chest as she bit her lip.

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He licked the pinched point of flesh, flicked it with his tongue before closing his mouth completely over its form. He suckled on it with such pressure she felt an orgasm building in her toes. A cry rose in her throat and she choked it back. Clenching her fists around the chain suspending her from the ceiling, she ground her cunt against his cock, the building pulses between her legs stealing her breath. Kirs, she was going to come! She bucked, toes curling, eyes closed… and hissed in rage as Talano suddenly, abruptly, pulled his mouth from her breast. Silver eyes gleamed with an unreadable light. “You don’t think it’s going to be that easy, do you?” Curling his fingers into her thighs, he skimmed his palms along her legs, following their length until he gripped her ankles in each hand. Falynn’s already tight throat grew tighter. She clung to the chain, readying her arms to take her weight. She knew what he was about to do, and her pussy gushed in eager anticipation, even as the tension of her building climax faded to a deliciously denied throb. Three years ago, Thanatos had kept her balanced on the very edge of sexual release. Working her body. Using her in every way imaginable until she could take no more. Until she’d begged for him to let her come, her screams tearing from her throat as orgasm after orgasm claimed her. It seemed Talano intended no different. “Fuck you,” she whispered, hating him and hungering for him. “Fuck me.” He studied her for a teasing moment before, with indolent, unhurried ease, he unlocked her ankles and took a step backward, straightening her legs and spreading them wide as he did so. He held her ankles like so, the muscles of his chest and shoulders coiling as he kept her legs apart, supporting their weight. Falynn’s heart hammered, the weightless sense of being suspended threading through the building arousal of her position. She fixed Talano with a level stare, her pussy contracting and fluttering, her mouth dry. “What are you going to do?” He smiled. Slightly. “This.” And suddenly there were two of him.

Chapter Five Falynn’s mouth fell open. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t know what else to do. She stared at her ex-mentor, once the IAC’s most feared, successful and mysterious assassin, a man who had disappeared from existence three years ago after a hit shrouded in secrecy. No. She stared at the two of him. “I don’t…” The words stumbled in her throat and she shook her head. “What the… what is…” The man between her legs, the original Talano, smiled, the corners of his mouth curling upward. A fraction. “I am Phase, Proserpina.” The other Talano stepped behind her, his warm breath on her neck as he smoothed one hand down the curve of her back and over the line of her ass to place his fingers on her pussy. “As am I,” he whispered, his intimate, arrogant touch making her heart thump and her cunt constrict. Falynn stared at the man before her, the pulse in her neck pounding. Phase? A dimensional operative? It wasn’t possible. The Phase were a myth. The hand between her spread thighs stroked the damp slit of her sex through the thin material of her suit, threatening to destroy any hope she had of comprehending the situation. She sucked in a deep breath, and wished she hadn’t. Talano’s potent musk was intoxicating enough when there was just one of him, but two? It threaded into her being, more concentrated than ever. So powerful and undeniable she almost came there and then. Kirs, she needed to get control of her body before it took control of her mind. “But the Phase are a legend,” she said, struggling to ignore the squirming tension threatening to overwhelm her. “A fabrication. The impossible, insane invention of a deranged deep space explorer over a millennium ago.”

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The hot, hard body behind her pressed closer to her suspended form, long fingers she knew so very, very well tracing the throbbing, swollen folds of her cunt. “Does this feel like a myth, Proserpina?” Talano studied her from between her ankles with eyes like silver fire. Warm lips brushed the side of her neck, nibbled on the soft pad of her earlobe as her right breast was cupped and squeezed by a hand just as familiar as the fingers on her sex. “Does this feel like an invention of insanity?” His voice was just as low, just as smooth, just as sensual as the Talano before her. A wave of liquid electricity rolled through her, radiating out from the wicked points of contact on her body. She suppressed a moan, stare fixed on the Talano still gripping her ankles, holding her legs spread. “Which is the real you?” A slight smile played over his lips. “Both.” Falynn licked her lips, nervous curiosity nibbling on her building arousal in the same way the Talano behind her nibbled on her earlobe. “Explain,” she ordered on a ragged breath. “Phase govern the dimensional and temporal tapestry.” Talano’s eyes became unreadable. “Our Upper Echelon monitor and correct any abnormalities in the time and space continuum. Specifically, living entities’ parallel dimensions.” His gaze moved to her chest, watching his other self roll the nipple of her right breast between his knuckles with increasing pressure. “Every living entity creates the possibility of multiple existence based on each decision they make,” he continued with a distracted tone, his attention focused on the hand on her breast. “Those existences form temporal threads.” His fingers curled harder into her ankles and his jaw bunched. What he saw obviously affected him. His stare slid back to her and a very small grin played with the sides of his mouth. “I am -- or was -- a chrn’os. I was trained to destroy any who aggressively threatened the temporal and dimensional weave. I can Call any number of my own parallel existences to my current temporal plane.” An unreadable look crossed his face. “It makes me a very effective, efficient killer.”

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An effective, efficient killer? Falynn never heard such an understatement. A chill rippled her flesh as she thought of all the times in her training Thanatos had seemingly defied physics, so fast in his attack he seemed a continuous blur. So quick at times he couldn’t be seen to move at all. It explained the unexplainable. It also made her sex flutter with dark excitement. “So the Talano behind me is…” “The Unit Zero assassin who stayed on Batrium Nuun’r Prime three years ago and fucked you until we dripped sweat and could no longer move a muscle,” the man behind her whispered in her ear. A shiver rippled through Falynn and she twisted, trying to see that man. The cuffs cut into her wrists and she stopped, turning back to the man before her. Talano stroked his thumbs over her ankles, the leather of her boots doing nothing to shield her flesh from the promise his deliberate contact made. “He is just as real as I am. A little less refined perhaps -- he is, after all, still a Unit Zero assassin -- but just as aroused by your absolutely delicious body. Just as turned on by your highly vulnerable situation.” As if to illustrate the statement, the Talano pressed to her back snaked his hand up to her belly, hooked his fingers into her suit’s sliced opening and tore it completely apart, abruptly exposing her cunt to the den’s cool artificial air. She bucked, the killer in her fighting against the hot wave of rapture boiling through her body at such an aggressive de-robing. How dare he? How dare they? She tried to lash out with her feet, but the Talano of her time just gripped them tighter, holding her still as his other parted her damp feminine folds with his fingers and plunged into her tight channel. Before she could stop herself she arched her back, pushing her sex deeper onto his ungentle penetrations, her eyelids fluttering closed. A barely audible chuckle sounded in the room and she opened her eyes, glaring at the man between her legs. Was it him who laughed, or his twin? Does it matter? Kirs, Falynn! You are about to be fucked by not one but two -“You don’t know how hard it was to not Call the last time we made love,” the Talano before her suddenly stated. A silver stare locked on her face, even as his heat threaded up her legs to the junction of her thighs, well and truly sodden from the

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talented fingers exploring her cunt. “When Phase exist in the one temporal plane, the combined experiences -- both sensory and physical -- are felt by all versions.” The Talano behind her squeezed her breast, massaging its heavy swell as his lips and teeth skimmed the outer curve of her ear. “It makes for the most intense sexual encounter. Remember how good it felt when we fucked? Imagine that, Proserpina. Imagine that one amazing orgasm claiming your body with the force of two.” His tongue dipped into her ear. “Or three.” He flicked her nipple. “Or four.” Falynn’s cunt contracted at the idea and she choked back a moan of sheer rapture, her pussy squeezing his delving fingers even as she tried to control her aroused whimper. Talano’s grip on her ankles grew fierce. Almost painful. “Rutting like the two natural, brutal killers we are. A climax so forceful it would have torn the temporal plane.” His other withdrew the fingers in her sex and pinched her clit. Once. Twice. Explosive pain and excruciating pleasure tore through her and she bucked, cream flooding her cunt. Without warning, he drove his finger back into her pussy, wriggling it deeper, deeper. He pressed the pad of his thumb to the puckered opening of her ass, pushing slightly until the whimper she’d fought so hard to suppress slipped from her lips. Kirs, how was she to fight this? “I wanted to Call more than one of my ‘other’ dimensional existences and drown in the pleasure you created in us all,” Talano stated, as calm and composed as always. It was only the bunching of his jaw that told her he too fought with control. That, and the tight grip he still kept on her ankles. His twin’s breath tickled her ear, her neck. His fingers plunged in and out of her sopping sex, his hand squeezing and massaging her swollen breasts in unison. “I wanted to possess you, dominate you in Time never-ending,” Talano continued, his stare still fixed on her eyes, his hands slowly, slowly spreading her legs further apart with each word passing his lips. “For the last three years I’ve cursed myself for not doing so.”

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A blur of color and form the same size as Talano shimmered the space beside him, impossible to track with her eyes. A disembodied voice she knew well murmured something she couldn’t decipher, as if a ghost of time had spoken, followed immediately by a low, thick click. Falynn sucked in a sharp breath, the sound jerking her stare from the spatial distortion she felt sure was another Talano, to her ankles, her cunt constricting at what she saw. Two metal chains hung from a bar fixed to the ceiling, each length terminating in a wide metal band encircling her ankles. She was completely shackled. Suspended waist-height above the floor, wrists bound, legs spread. Defenseless and vulnerable. Two states of being she’d never been in before. Her stare snapped back to the Talano at her feet, her pulse an insane triphammer in her neck. He regarded her with smoldering silver eyes, his hands no longer gripping her ankles, placed loosely instead on the smooth curve of her calves, burning her flesh through the thin leather of her boots. “Ready?” the Talano behind her whispered in her ear, slowly sliding his fingers in and out of her dripping pussy. He massaged her clit, sending a jolt of wet heat into her core, and she gasped, the sound aggressive and submissive at once. Talano -- her time Talano -- chuckled. He slid his palms further up her legs, charting the line of her knees, gaze holding her motionless as surely as the metal shackles held her prisoner. Falynn’s heart hammered. Her mouth grew dry. She stared at him, rolling her hips into his other’s plunging fingers even as she felt his hips brush the smooth, tense column of her inner thighs. “I am going to fuck you with my tongue now, Proserpina,” he stated. “I am going to bring you to climax with my mouth as my dimensional other fucks your ass with his fingers.”

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“And when that climax is at its peak,” the Talano pressed to her back stated just as calmly, just as matter-of-factly, his fingers driving in and out, in and out of her sopping, cream-slicked pussy, “I am going to bury my cock into your tight, wet hole as my chrn’os twin buries his cock into your tight, wet cunt, and we will fuck you until you are screaming our name so loud your throat feels torn.” The absolute arrogance of the crude statement was too much for Falynn. Her sex, pumped and plundered by fingers of wicked talent, contracted, the brutal orgasm smashing through her with the devastating force of an exploding quasar. She thrashed in her chains, riding the savage eruption as she choked back whimper after whimper of raw pleasure, her cunt squeezing the fingers in her sex with powerful pulses that made her whole body shudder. Talano’s nostrils flared and his hands came to rest high on her inner thigh. “Perfect.” The word caressed her flayed senses like a velvet whip, before, with that same unnatural speed she’d always admired, he dropped to his knees and closed his lips around her clit.

*** …remote host initializing connection… …remote connection established… …switching to command override mode… …commence download strategic mission program… …error… uplink terminated… …remote host reinitializing connection… …remote connection established… …switching to command override mode… …error…uplink terminated… …initializing E.S.O.U.L reboot… …E.S.O.U.L online…

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Forty-Two opened his eyes and straightened, the artificial pulse in his throat rapid. An unknown remote source had reactivated him and then tried to override his internal command program, but which one? And why? Was it Falynn? He scanned the drinking, dancing and copulating patrons of the still rowdy bar, searching for her. She was not present in the crowd. Nor was the tall bouncer with the silver eyes and unusual bio-rhythms who had deactivated him. His chest grew tight, a surge of hot anger and deep concern charging his positronic matrix. The expression on Falynn’s face when she’d first seen the bouncer left little doubt in Forty-Two’s processing unit who he was -- Unit Zero Agent Thanatos. The shock and base desire in her eyes said it all. Switching his visual scan to read thermal waves, he tracked Falynn’s heat signature out of Haze. The fading colors rippling the air made his chest squeeze tighter. She had been gone for sixty-seven point four five minutes. Sixty-seven point four five minutes possibly in the hands of the most efficient, brutal and successful assassin the IAC and Unit Zero ever had. Sixty-seven point four five minutes possibly in the arms of the one man capable of destroying her control. Another surge of hot anger scalded through Forty-Two’s circuits, pushing his E.S.O.U.L into unknown parameters. His fists clenched, and for point zero zero one second his primary program -- combat mode -- activated. The indestructible metal exobattle armor concealed beneath his artificial flesh began to deploy, singeing the back of his neck as it began to slice free of its living camouflage. He shut down the unexpected, unplanned reaction, an immediate rerouting of code and command deactivating the armor’s deployment. Until he knew what situation Falynn was in, he needed to maintain his human appearance. Slashing his skin to ribbons with thin interlocking metal plates because he was jealous would not help her if she needed him to continue his current façade. Without pausing for anyone in his way -- who was going to cause trouble for a seven-foot man who looked like he could fold you in two with just his little fingers? --

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he crossed the crowded dance floor and exited the bar, scanning sensors locked on Falynn’s heat signature. He had to find her. Before Thanatos could kill her. Or worse, kiss her.

*** The exquisite pleasure-pain was absolute. Falynn ground her teeth, throwing back her head into the hard, muscled shoulder behind her. Talano’s dimensional twin took full advantage of her position and captured her neck with his mouth, sucking with brutal greed on the curve where her neck became her collarbone, squeezing and molding her breast with equal force. His fingers continued to work her sex, delving and wriggling into her sodden folds even as Talano sucked and nibbled on her clit. Another wave of concentrated pleasure took her and she gnashed her teeth together. Incinerating sensations consumed her, radiating from her sex and her neck, rolling through her body to collide and converge in her very core. The gripping pulses of her sudden orgasm still lingered between her spread legs, pulses now being fed and nourished by the two men worshipping her body. Tension, squirming, molten, prickling tension, began building again, tingling in her spine, the soles of her feet. She rammed her hips forward, harder into Talano’s mouth and his dimensional twin’s hand. The chains suspending her from the ceiling swung with her motion, adding to the sublime pressure already in her heavy, dripping cunt. A gasp escaped her, raw and protracted. The Talano at her neck showed his appreciation of the sound by pinching her nipple and biting her flesh. The Talano between her thighs showed his by suckling with greater force on her clit. Falynn bucked again, thrashing in her chains, never feeling so thoroughly used and revered at once. The hand on her breast worked her nipple, twisting and flicking and pinching. The mouth on her neck scored a hot, wet line from collarbone to jaw to ear and back. The mouth on her pussy drank her flowing juices, the tongue dipping into her folds before returning to her throbbing clit. Kirs! Yes! The cry rose in Falynn’s throat, threatening to burst from her lips. She caught it -- just -- squeezing her eyes shut and sinking her nails into her palms instead.

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“Don’t fight it,” Talano’s twin whispered in her ear, cupping her breast. “Remember your screams of abandon and release the last time we fucked. Remember how good they felt.” He slid his fingers from her pussy, stroking them over the puckered hole of her anus. She felt her flesh grow damp, painted with her own cream by the man’s fingers, and a shudder of anticipation surged through her. He pressed on her opening, pushing into her ass just as Talano pushed into her cunt with his tongue. The dual penetration was exquisite. Falynn whimpered, bowing her back. Kirs, she was on fire! She rolled her hips, wanting the two men -- the one man twice -- to fill her. She’d never wanted to be invaded, taken, so badly. Every molecule of her body ached for release. Another whimper slipped from her parted lips. Louder. “Yes,” Talano said softly into her sex, his breath on her flushed, swollen pussy lips an inescapable, divine torture. “Yes,” his other echoed, his slowly penetrating finger sending wave after wave of pure, elemental pleasure into her core. “Yes,” she moaned, drowning in the tension of her building, rising orgasm. “Oh, Kirs, yes.” She curled her hands around the chains attached to her wrists and rolled her hips, unable to stop the urgent need to join Talano and his twin’s rhythm. She drew her knees up, spreading her legs wider, granting the mouth on her sex and the finger in her ass greater, deeper access. Wet rapture crashed through her. The tingle in the soles of her feet became a burn, the itch in her spine an inferno. She curled her toes, throwing her head back to cry out silently as one spasm after another rocked her body. And just when she felt sure she could take no more, when her body had reached its limits of pleasure, Talano snapped to his feet, curled his fingers into her hips and sank his thick, long cock into her cunt. At the exact moment, his dimensional twin withdrew his finger from her ass and replaced it with his cock. The sensation of being filled completely was immediate and mind-blowing. Their two shafts stretched her to the limit, a stinging pain so wonderful and erotic she

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cried out. The raw sound bounced off the sex-den’s walls, came back to her and fed her lust. A shudder wracked through her, and her pussy and ass squeezed tight. Fresh cream gushed from her, slicking Talano’s cock as it thrust in and out of her cunt and drenching his dimensional twin’s balls as they slapped against her ass cheeks. Another cry burst from her throat. Louder. She bucked, the never-ending pulses of her orgasm growing stronger, stronger. When Talano lowered his head and took one stiff nipple in his mouth, biting it with savage force as his twin pinched her other, she had no choice but to cry out again. “Kirs, yes!” The two Talanos pumped into her, harder, faster, possessing her totally. Suckling and biting and squeezing her breasts, they drove into her again and again and again. The feel of their ramrod lengths pressing and sliding against each other through the thin wall of her sex stole her breath. Made her giddy. Commanded climax after climax. Her breaths grew shallow, rapid. She was sure she was going to hyperventilate, but couldn’t stop. Control deserted her. She writhed in her chains, on fire and drowning at once. Incapable of doing anything except become lost in the pure, concentrated pleasure owning her. Claiming her. “Oh, fuck me!” Her moan sounded more like a shout but she couldn’t hold back. Not anymore. When it felt like she was going to die from sensory overload, what else was she to do but voice her last words. “Fuck me harder. Harder. Harder!” They did exactly as she demanded, penetrating her with such force her cunt clamped down on Talano’s cock, her ass, the cock of his dimensional other. Each worshipped her breasts, her throat, her neck with their mouths. Each continued to drive into her, their strokes becoming wilder, faster. She felt their cocks pulse. Felt their balls rise. She opened her eyes and stared blindly at the ceiling, seeing nothing, feeling everything, no longer Falynn Mavek but a creature created by Sabian Talano. A creature of pleasure absolute. Talano’s other came first, hot cum erupting from his cock’s distended tip. She felt it fill her ass. Felt its liquid warmth squeeze from her opening as his strokes became erratic. “Oh, fuck!” he roared, nails digging into her hips, cutting into her flesh.

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Her Talano smashed into her, his climax claiming him with immediate force, turning his rhythm to powerful convulsions and his low moans to a roar equal to his twin’s. “Fuck, I’m coming! I’m coming!” The frenzied conviction and surrender in his cry pushed Falynn completely over the already shattered edge of restraint. She arched, heels slamming into Talano’s back, her final orgasm an explosion of fluid and rapture and carnal delight. Destroying the last threads of her control without remorse. “Yes, yes, yes!” she screamed, riding them both, dying and being born again in the scorching pleasure consuming her. “Fuck me, Talano. Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!”

*** Forty-Two stood motionless in the passageway, stare fixed on the closed door before him. He didn’t need his highly tuned artificial aural sensors to hear Falynn’s screams. Her voice, thick and raw with complete release, carried through the sex-den’s insulated metal panel. “Fuck me, Talano. Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!” Talano. Thanatos. The ghost he’d been competing with since his resurrection. An explosion of electrical impulses surged through Forty-Two’s positronic matrix and for a split moment, not even one millionth of a second, he wanted to blast away the door with his inbuilt deax gun and rip Falynn’s heart from her -…remote host initializing hostile connection… Forty-Two froze, structure tense, his positronic matrix engaging with the remote host. …remote hostile connection established… …switching to command override mode… …commence download updating strategic mission program… He stood motionless, eyelids fluttering rapidly as string after string of code dumped into his core processor, overriding his sentient program. …updated strategic mission program download complete… …initialize IAC UZ action priority one…

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Forty-Two blinked twice, returning to active service. A sequence of alert messages suddenly flashed through his neural net, his E.S.O.U.L program instantly recognizing the source of the hostile override and trying to negate the command. No, this is not right. This is wrong. You cannot allow Interplanetary Alliance Council to -With a sharp, fast blow, he smashed the side of his hand into his neck, just below his right ear. A violent twitch jerked his head to the left as his E.S.O.U.L program shut down. He lowered his arm back to his side, free of emotions for the first time since his resurrection. It was an irrelevant waste of processing space anyway. A weakness he did not need or want anymore. He stood still, staring at the sex-den’s door, listening to Falynn’s cries of sexual passion on the other side as he processed his new orders from the IAC. Lips stretching into a wide, empty smile, he turned and walked along the passageway, heading back to Haze. It was time to find the M.E.Lii.

Chapter Six Her skin felt soft. He trailed his fingertips over the smooth, gentle curve of her hip, tracing the languid path with his gaze. He’d dreamed about the velvet touch of Falynn’s skin for three years. Had lain awake every night in his bed, drawing forth the memory of her skin and its sublime perfection despite the tiny scars charting the journey of her training. He’d fantasized about pressing his lips to those scars, kissing away the pain of each until both he and Falynn became hot and wet with arousal. His dimensional twin was back in his own temporal thread, returning to his rightful existence in an instant tearing of time after giving Falynn a not so gentle kiss, and telling her with a sly, almost evil grin that he’d “give your other your best.” Just as arrogant and smug as he, Talano of True Time, had been three years ago. Sabian looked down at the woman beside him, reliving that moment again. Not ready to answer the questions he saw in her eyes, he’d gently removed Falynn from her chains and carried her to the bed, lowering her to the mattress with infinite care. She’d parted her lips, but he’d silenced her with a long, slow kiss. A kiss that had turned into an exploration of each other’s bodies, just as long and slow. Now they lay stretched together on the bed, their stomachs and hips touching, their legs entwined, and it was all he could do to not roll her onto her back and make love to her again. But there were issues to be addressed first. Questions to be asked and answers to be given. Lifting his gaze to her face, he found her looking at him. Studying him with eyes that revealed nothing of her thoughts. “Why did you disappear?” Her question, while not unexpected, made Sabian’s chest tight. What did he tell her? What did she know? “Why didn’t you contact me?”

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He smiled. Her second question was easier to answer. “To keep you alive.” Falynn frowned. “That makes no sense.” Brushing a loose strand of her hair from her cheek, he gently touched her jaw before resting his hand on her shoulder, drawing small circles on her skin with the pad of his thumb. “It does if you understood the circumstances of Thanatos’s demise.” Her jaw clenched and he saw familiar stubborn anger in its angle. “So tell me.” “Are you going to attempt to complete your mission?” His question brought a faint pink heat to her cheeks and he chuckled silently. Proserpina was skilled at deception and subterfuge, but not with him. No matter how hard she’d tried during her training, she’d never been able to control the delicate blush a direct unwanted question from Thanatos created. “No,” she answered, meeting his level gaze with her own. “I am not going to try and kill you.” “And the other part of your mission?” Her muscles stiffened for a moment before she shook her head. “No.” She paused for a second, studying him closely. “What is the weapon? Why does the IAC want it back so badly?” Sabian’s chest tightened again. Three years spent in hiding, three years spent protecting one little girl who trusted him completely and utterly. Could he answer Falynn now? Could he tell his former student everything? He looked at her. Really looked at her. Not just to see the sensual creature he desired, but to see the woman she’d become since he left. He looked at her and saw the young, determined, fierce woman he’d fallen in love with three years ago. Saw the empty, wounded woman he’d left in his absence. He’d spent three years protecting Emylie, and three years denying the one wish he’d held since Falynn Mavek entered his training dojo -- to be with her. In every sense of the word. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. Could he answer her? Could he? “I was taken from my mother as a baby,” he said, keeping his voice calm and composed. Falynn’s frown deepened but he continued. “I never knew her. Nor my

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father. I was sent to the Phase Pits, the ‘guidance’ camp on our fifth moon where all chrn’os are trained. It is brutal. Harsh. There is a ninety-seven percent death rate. For the first four years a chrn’os is cared for by a nameless squad of genderless Phase, and I use the term ‘cared for’ loosely. The infants are fed when they are hungry and clothed when they are cold. That is it. “On a chrn’os’s fifth birthday they are stripped of their attire and told to survive. And their training begins. Temporal and dimensional warfare is an ugly thing. Unpredictable. When you are fighting for your very existence against someone who can Call upon any number of their other to attack you at any time, you must always be alert. Sleep becomes a luxury, death your constant companion. It is that way until you are released from the Pit. Those that survive the training become chrn’os. “There is little the Phase cannot do, but there is one constant even we cannot deny. All Phase, whether Upper Echelon or chrn’os have one existence anchored in True Time. One existence that can Call, but cannot Traverse. There must be one constant True Time or the Temporal and Dimensional Weave would unravel and chaos would follow. All Phase are limited to this anchor. Except me.” Falynn frowned. “Except you?” “When my people discovered I was able to Traverse, to jump to my other dimensional existences at will, the experiments began. I was six. I spent my days in the Pits and my nights in the lab. My existence -- on every temporal and dimensional plane -- was pain. The Phase scientists and Upper Echelon wanted to know not just how I could do what I did, but how they could pervert the genetic structure of others to do the same. It wasn’t enough to govern dimensional space and time, they wanted to dominate and control it as well.” Sabian swallowed the bitter, decades-old resentment rising in his throat. It served him no purpose. He’d left it behind the day he’d escaped Phase to join Unit Zero. True to the Proserpina he’d trained and longed for, Falynn remained silent for a long moment, digesting what she’d just heard. Considering it. Weighing it in her mind. “What does this have to do with the bio-weapon?” she finally asked, her composed

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poise almost hiding the tremor Sabian heard in her voice. “What does this have to do with the M.E.Lii?” “M.E.Lii is not a weapon, Proserpina,” he answered, holding her stare. “Emylie is a child. A six-year-old little girl.” Falynn moved away from him a little, confusion etching her face. “A what? The IAC’s bio-weapon is a child?” Sabian shook his head. “She is not a weapon. She is a cure. Emylie carries a genome abnormality that can ‘reset’ the DNA strand of any humanoid with a fatal disease.” Falynn’s eyes widened and she sucked in a swift breath. “By Kirs.” She stared at him, struck silent. He could see the reality of what Emylie could bring to the known systems sinking in. A frown pulled at her forehead. “Emylie was your target three years ago? You were sent to kill her?” He nodded. “Why? The IAC sent me to kill you, not Emylie. My mission was to bring her back. Return her to the IAC immediately. Why would they want her dead three years ago but not now?” “I don’t know. Three years ago, the IAC didn’t want the bio-cure she holds escaping their control. If it became readily available it would severely reduce their medical supplies and health taxes. It would bite into a massive chunk of revenue and reduce their control-by-bio-fear over the populace. The hit was ordered by the IAC’s head scientist and sanctioned by then-premier Pretorik Ipari. I found her in a lab, strapped to a metal slab, the tubes inserted into her armpit and elbow pumping fluid from her body, the tubes inserted into her stomach and neck pumping fluid in.” Horrified disgust shone in Falynn’s eyes. “Oh, Kirs.” “Why the scientist didn’t kill her himself, I don’t know.” Sabian clenched his jaw, the cold white rage he always felt when thinking about the “man with the needle” licking through his veins. “A sense of guilt he couldn’t deny? A weak stomach for something so hideous? I plan to ask him one day. Before I snap his neck.”

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The frown returned to Falynn’s face and she shifted, sitting up slightly to look down at him. “You took her? You’ve kept her away from scientists and doctors for three years? Why? When she can cure so many people?” “Because she is a child, Falynn. She’s just six years old. The first three years of Emylie’s life were spent in an IAC lab. She never saw the sun, she never got to play with other children, she’d never owned a doll. When she’s old enough to choose what happens to her body, then I will find a scientist who sees her for the cure she represents, not the credits. Until then, she deserves the right to be a child, a little girl growing up as normally as she can. Not exploited. Not hunted. Not living in fear.” Falynn studied him silently, her throat working as she swallowed, her brow creasing as she digested his words. She was surprised. He could tell. He hadn’t meant to be so vehement. “Why would they want her dead three years ago and not now?” she asked again, voicing the question nagging Sabian since the moment she’d told him she wanted the IAC’s bio-weapon. “What’s changed?” He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he repeated. “But I will kill anyone who tries to harm her again, even if I have to tear the very fabric of Time and Space to do so.” Falynn tilted her head, regarding him with unwavering, unreadable eyes. “Is that a heart I hear beating in your chest, Unit Zero Agent code name Thanatos?” “I’ve always had a heart, Proserpina,” he said, matter-of-factly. “It’s just that you stole it the day you walked into UZ and demanded to be made an agent.” Falynn gasped, a soft sound he caught with his mouth. He kissed her. A slow, gentle kiss. Her tongue touched his bottom lip, just as gentle, before dipping into his mouth to trace the edge of his teeth. A low groan vibrated up through his chest and he parted his lips, the taste of Falynn flooding his senses. Fri’ac, she tasted so good. Sliding her hand over his rib cage and down his stomach, Falynn broke the kiss. Barely. “Is Emylie safe right at this moment?” The burning hunger in her eyes told Sabian exactly why she asked.

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“Did UZ send anyone else?” She cocked an eyebrow. “They sent me. Their second-best agent. Why would they need to send another?” He nodded, chuckling silently at her self-mocking conceit. “Then she is safe.” A slow smile curled Falynn’s lips and she smoothed her hand lower down his abs, the tips of her fingers brushing the head of his growing erection. “Good.” Her hand slipped lower still, followed by her lips and her tongue, and for a long, exquisite moment, Emylie was the furthest thing from Sabian Talano’s mind.

*** Forty-Two disengaged the locking mechanism on the door before him, slid it open and entered Unit Zero Agent Thanatos’s apartment. Stopping one step in, he closed the door behind him and began to scan the quiet, dimly lit room for life signs. A small heat source radiated from the adjoining room to the left, motionless and quivering at once. It appeared to be the same species of feline singing earlier in Haze, its small body pressed low to the floor as if it waited to see what would happen next. Forty-Two dismissed it. The juvenile Kitali presented no threat or assistance in locating the M.E.Lii. …IAC action priority one target search continue… Stepping deeper into Thanatos’s home, Forty-Two scanned for other signs of life. Child-size signs. The kind of size perfect for cowering under a bed or hiding behind a large piece of furniture. The Rellian bouncer Forty-Two had questioned in one of the spaceport’s more isolated passageways had professed -- quite ardently in fact, despite watching his fingers being torn one by one from his hand -- no knowledge of Thanatos’s true identity, or if he possessed a bio-weapon. The man had blubbered and sobbed and whined about Thanatos -- whom he called Sabian Talano -- being “just a bouncer, just a bouncer for Dyri’s sake, he’s just a bouncer who wants to be left alone to take care of Emylie.”

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Scanning the silent, deserted rooms, Forty-Two replayed the vid of the man’s wailing through his visual CPU, noting with detached interest how much blood spurted from the torn stumps on his hand. Takes care of Emylie, that’s it. Oh, God. That’s it. For Dyri’s sake, he just wants to take care of Emylie. Please don’t hurt me anymore, please don’t tear my -M.E.Lii. The coincidence could not be ignored. …IAC action priority one target search continue… Crossing Thanatos’s apartment, he entered the adjoining bedroom, switching to detect mode. If someone had been in there in the last sixty minutes their residue heat signature would still be visible. No matter how small they were. He scanned the small, simple room. His bio-sensors detected trace remains of both male and female, with a heavy concentration of male on the bed -- this was obviously Thanatos’s sleeping quarters -- but apart from that, nothing. …IAC action priority one target search continue… He turned, taking a step toward the door. And stopped. Two sets of approaching footfalls vibrated the floor outside the apartment. One heavy. One light. Child-size light. A soft hum announced the door sliding open and then a softly high-pitched voice floated into the room in which Forty-Two stood. “Do I have to tell him?” “Sabian Talano will want to know why you did not go to Jymia’s house as planned,” an even, modulated female voice replied. “And why you left school to play with the Kitali on Level 7. It is fortunate I found you.” “I didn’t leave school just to play with the kits. I was coming down to Level 18 to find you,” the child answered. “That is very sweet, and I appreciate your honesty,” the female responded, “but, Emylie --” Forty-Two snapped straight. …IAC priority one target located. Commence action…

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Activating the molecular disruptor built into his left forearm, he stepped out of Thanatos’s bedroom. And locked his stare on the bio-weapon. “M.E.Lii.”

*** Her mouth slid up and down his erection, her tongue lapping at the curve of his balls as she deep-throated him. Sabian groaned, the thick sound vibrating up his throat and past his lips. He fisted the sheet, focusing on the heat coiling low in the pit of his stomach. It spread out, a rolling wave of twisting tension starting at his cock and burning its slow, wonderful way through the rest of his body. With each wet caress of Falynn’s mouth, with each tiny nip of her teeth on the throbbing head of his cock, with each not-so-gentle squeeze of his sac with her fingers, his climax drew closer. Lifting one hand to the back of her head, he tangled his fingers in her hair, reveling in the feel of the cool, silken strands. He clenched his hand into a fist, knowing Falynn enjoyed the erotic pain the action brought. She was a creature of contrasts -- the most proficient, talented natural killer he knew, but yet a woman needing to be worshipped and cherished at the same time. A woman needing to know she had worth and place. And she did. For him, she always had. Her tongue wrapped the base of his shaft, flicked at the swell of his balls before she slowly, slowly, slowly raised her head. His cock slipped from her mouth with a soft pop, the sex-den’s cool artificial air chilling its heated length. A shiver rippled through him, turning his already hard nipples to rock-hard tips of flesh. Falynn snaked up his body, pinching one with her fingers and thumb, capturing the other with her teeth. She bit the small pebble, watching his face through the tumbled strands of her hair, smiling when he sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, fri’ac.”

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“Does that mean you want me to stop?” The sheer cheeky arrogance in her husky voice made his already aching cock spasm with carnal hunger. “Don’t you fucking dare.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Well, when you put it that way…” With a quick blurring of her right arm, she grabbed his fist in her hair, drove her thumbnail into the pressure point between his thumb and index finger, and rammed his hand flat to the mattress beside his head, raising herself up onto her knees to hover above his ramrod stiff shaft. “Hey?” He gave her an indignant glare. “What do you think you’re doing?” She grinned at him from her lofty position. “You said, ‘don’t you fucking dare.’ I dared.” Lowering herself slightly, she brushed the velvet softness of her pussy lips against his straining, bulbous cockhead. “Now what are you going to do?” He grinned back. “This.” And with that, he whipped up his legs, locked them around her waist and rolled them both to the side, stabbing his cock into her cunt as he did so and driving it all the way in.

*** The bio-weapon jumped at his voice, human-like dark brown eyes snapping wide before its companion -- a short, plump female with a soft body and sharp eyes -grabbed her arm and yanked it behind her back. “Who are you?” she demanded. Forty-Two turned his scan on the woman. Bio-living tissue covering an air servosystem kelruudium skeleton. P0-2 nanny gynoid. …caution… “Surrender the M.E.Lii and I shall not disassemble you.” The gynoid didn’t move. “Leave.” Forty-Two raised his arm, leveling his disruptor on the location of the nannybot’s power source. “Surrender the bio-weapon.”

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The gynoid raised her own arm, an io-pulse blaster instantly tearing through the dermal layer on the back of her hand. An alarm sounded in Forty-Two’s head as the small but highly lethal gun locked onto his right eye. “Leave now.” “Surely you realize you are outclassed?” The gynoid smiled at him, a kind, gentle smile of infinite tenderness and maternal compassion. “Surely you realize you are outdated?” “Mare’ree?” A small trembling whisper reached Forty-Two’s aural receptors and instantly his targeting unit locked onto the bio-weapon’s location. Four point seven inches to the left of the gynoid’s centre of gravity. Forty-Two charged his molecular disruptor. And lunged.

*** Falynn’s sex gripped him. Her firm, slick feminine muscles squeezed his cock, taunting him, teasing him. With the same absolute determination she dedicated to extinguishing a life, she extracted pleasure from him. Despite being beneath him, back pressed to the mattress, she owned the rhythm, her cunt constricting and contracting around his length in sensual pulses that stole his breath and robbed him of thought. She rode his body, not just his erection, her sweat-slicked skin sliding over his, her palms exploring his chest, his shoulders, his hips, her long, lithe legs entwined with his to hold him to her. “Kirs, Talano, you feel so fucking good.” Sabian stared into her eyes, unable and unwilling to break even that abstract contact. Her words, low and throaty, made his heart thump harder. He felt good? He gazed down at her, one hand cupping the back of her head, the other smoothing up and down the length of her torso, from breast to hip to ass and back again as he slowly pumped into her. Her sex stretched around his cock and enveloped him. Fri’ac, she’d never felt better. Their bodies moved together in such perfect unison, with each breath he drew, she took him deeper, deeper. His gaze dropped to her mouth, and the sight of her parted lips, glistening with the moisture of their kisses, sent a surge of hot, fresh blood to his groin. Fuck, he was

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close. He gripped the thick base of her braid, guiding her harder into his thrusts, his balls slapping her ass. The tingling pressure in his groin began to spread to his spine. His breath grew rapid, shallow. “Oh, by the gods, yes.” Falynn groaned, bowing her back to grind her clit against the root of his cock. She sank her nails into his shoulders. Raked them down his back. Marked his flesh with ten scored lines of burning pain that bespoke of her rapture. It shot through him. Ignited a liquid fire in the pit of his gut, his balls. He’d been so tempted during the last three years to Traverse to another of his dimensional existences, one where he and Falynn fucked each other -- no, made love to each other every night -- just to see her. To draw her soft scent into his body with a breath. The draw on his body every time he closed his eyes and saw her, the physical pain he experienced every time he thought of her taste, her smell… To Traverse and experience her again in the flesh… But he couldn’t. He couldn’t leave Emylie unprotected. Now here she was. In True Time. Her body against his, her sweet taste on his tongue. Her tight sex gripping him with divine, exquisite pressure. Fri’ac, what had he done for the gods to reward him so? What was right. You saved a life when you could have taken it. For the first time in your life, you did what was right. His chest grew heavy and he lowered his head, brushing his lips over hers as he slid deeper into her very centre. “I love you, Falynn Mavek,” he stated calmly before the building tension of his imminent climax could steal his ability to form words. “In all dimensions, in all temporal possibilities.” Falynn’s blue eyes widened. A silent gasp slipped from her parted lips, and then her cunt constricted around his cock, contracting and squeezing in powerful pulses as her orgasm claimed her. And detonated his own. Her nails pierced his shoulders, her heels dug into his back. She bucked underneath him, her sodden sex milking his cock of his spurting seed. She cried out, wild, uninhibited keening sounds that fed his own violent release. He slammed into

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her, again and again, filling her, possessing her. Never wanting to let her go. Never wanting this moment of True Time to -A high-pitched squeal pierced the air and Sabian froze, his blood running to ice. Fri’ac, no! “Talano?” Falynn’s voice was lost in the ear-slicing alarm. Snapping upright, throat tight, chest tighter, he smacked his fingers against the small com unit strapped around his right wrist. “Sabian!” Emylie’s scream burst from his com unit, her voice high with terror, the sounds of metal smashing against metal in the background. “Sabian! He’s got me! He’s got --” The com-link went dead. Fuck. He leapt from the bed. “Talano?” Falynn scrambled upright. “What’s going on?” Shoving his legs into his trousers, Sabian shot her a quick look. “Emylie. Someone’s after Emylie.” And before she could reply, he snatched his strafer, synaptic neutralizer and gutting blade from the bench and ran from the room.

*** Forty-Two walked through the crowded passageway, assessing the report from his internal diagnostics, ignoring the stares and angry shouts of those he pushed aside. A ruptured hydraulic line, two shattered servo controllers and a destroyed munitions control module. His targeting system was currently offline, requiring a reboot to realign the target/firing lock, and there was a fluid leak in his left “calf” which would need to be stemmed before the seeping liquid bled his hydraulic systems dry. He affected a frown. If his E.S.O.U.L program were still functional, he’d be grudgingly impressed. The nanny-bot knew how to fight. He continued through the busy corridor, readjusting the load under his arm as he headed for Level 7. The P0-2 had been much harder, much more time-consuming to destroy than he’d anticipated. Who would have thought a gynoid built like a human geriatric would be capable of putting up such a battle?

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He ran another diagnostic, detecting a cascading failure in his core control unit. The P0-2 had somehow damaged his exo-battle armor deployment mechanism. “Clever bitch,” he muttered, changing the load under his left arm to his right. A blistering hiss sounded near his left ear and a hot jolt shot across the side of his face, distorting his vision for zero point eight seconds. The bio-weapon knew how to fight too, obviously tutored by Thanatos. The damage it had caused to his dermal layer with the small neuron-destabilizer was extensive. “Hey!” A voice rose above the clatter of the passageway. A tall humanoid wearing an officious expression and a slightly crumpled master merchant’s robe pushed through the throng of suddenly curious onlookers, stopping directly in front of Forty-Two to glare up at him. “What’s going on? What are you doing with Sabian Talano’s little girl?” Forty-Two let his stare slide to the unconscious body hanging limp on his hip before returning it to the man blocking his path. “Taking it,” he said, and smashed his palm heel into the man’s nose. The man flung backward, a splattering arc of bright red blood spurting from the shattered mess of his nose as he landed on his back on the floor. The passageway erupted into a cacophony of screams and shouts. The crowd scattered, jumping over the prone master merchant, and Forty-Two continued to the docking level and The Wisp. He had to secure the M.E.Lii in the vessel’s lock-up before completing the second part of his new mission. Terminate Unit Zero Agents Thanatos and Proserpina.

Chapter Seven Sabian was halfway into his apartment before what he saw really sank in. He stumbled to a halt, gut clenching. Fri’ac, no. The living area was in chaos, furniture overturned and shattered as if a meteorite storm had raged through the small space. He stood still, scanning the mess, refusing to feel anything. He needed to be ice. Detached. He needed to find… There. Tossing aside an overturned armchair, he crossed the room, dropping into a crouch beside the motionless Mare’ree. Fluid-weeping wounds crisscrossed her biodermal layer, some so deep the intricate circuitry beneath was visible. One optical sensor lay against her cheek on a tangled rope of wires, the scratches around the socket indicating the bionic eye had been gouged out of the ’droid’s head. Her mouth hung open, jaw skewed to the right, the entire left side of her once-kindly, maternal face now just shredded artificial skin and shattered components. “Mare’ree?” The nanny-bot didn’t move. He ran a quick inspection over her brutalized form, noting with detached anger her body ended at her hips, circuits and wires and hydraulics rupturing from the ragged wound. Whoever had taken Emylie had torn Mare’ree in two. “Mare’ree?” Nothing. “Talano? Is Emylie…” Falynn sprinted into the room, the question dying on her lips as she faltered to a halt. “Kirs! What happened?” He cast her a quick look, noting she’d dressed herself in his discarded jacket before leaving the den, the heavy leather garment almost hiding her naked body. Her eyes widened with shocked horror as she looked about the room, her grip on the subaotic pistol in her hand tightening. “Fuck, who did this?”

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Ignoring her question and the crushing weight of time, Sabian turned back to the ’droid, closing his fingers lightly around her forehead. An unexpected sense of loss at Mare’ree’s demise pressed hard on his chest as he twisted her head to the left, revealing a small access point behind her ear. With a gentle tap, he released the access point’s concealing panel, exposing the nanny-bot’s internal communications unit. He pressed his finger to the small sensor pad, triggering the security override system and activating the P0-2’s “final message” function. “R42 combat ’droid.” The words sounded from her motionless lips in a low, distorted metallic vibration. Sabian stared at her shattered face, an ice-cold fist squeezing his heart. “R42?” Falynn echoed from behind him, confusion and disbelief in her voice. White-hot rage and hate roared through him. He sprang to his feet, turning to fix her with a still, level gaze. “You planned this.” “I what?” She shook her head, eyes growing wide. “No, Talano. I --” He didn’t let her finish. What more was there to be heard? He smashed his fist into her jaw, watching impassively as she dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap across Mare’ree’s severed torso, her eyes rolled back into her head, her limbs limp and boneless. Refusing to acknowledge the numb grief threatening to claim him, he turned and left his apartment. He had to find Emylie. Now.

*** “Let me go! Let me go let me go letmego!” The bio-weapon thrashed in Forty-Two’s hold, small child-like arms and legs whipping out, smacking against his face, chest and thighs in stinging little punches and ineffectual kicks. He ignored it, moving through Spaceport Adana’s empty docking level, heading for UZ Agent Proserpina’s dragonfly-class vessel. “Let me go!” the thing screamed again, its tiny bunched fist bouncing off his cheek, just below his eye.

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He gave it a sharp shake. “Be quiet.” “Sabian Talano is going to make you dead,” it shouted, twisting and bucking against his side. Forty-Two smiled. “Agent Thanatos is more than welcome to try.” “Thank you.” The deep male voice, emotionless and icy-cold at once, made Forty-Two spin around. Standing motionless on the passageway behind him, the musky stink of Agent Proserpina wafting from his flesh in potent waves, was the towering bouncer from Haze. “I see you have finished fucking, Agent Thanatos.” “Sabian!” the bio-weapon squealed, squirming. The man tilted his head a little, studying Forty-Two intently, silver eyes steady and unwavering. “Put the child down.” “I will put the bio-weapon down in The Wisp. After I kill you.” Thanatos released a sigh. “Very well.” His arm moved in a blur, so fast even Forty-Two’s bionic vision failed to track it. A sharp report cracked the air, followed immediately by explosive heat in his chest and a wailing siren in the air as the spaceport’s internal security system activated, slamming shut a thick set of solid blast doors, cutting the docking bay off from the rest of the spaceport. Forty-Two staggered backward, bio-dermal layer sizzling into eroding blisters under Thanatos’s fire. His positronic matrix registered the painful eo-energy signature of a deatomizing pulse pistol spreading into his living flesh, and he ground his teeth, redirecting power to his internal equalizer. He gripped the kicking, squirming bioweapon under his arm tighter, crushing it harder to his side to prevent it slipping free. “Lemmegolemmegolemmego!” Thanatos charged him, pulse pistol leveled on his chest, unrelenting, dead stare locked on his face. Forty-Two lifted his left arm, his forearm skin splitting as his molecular disruptor burst from within. The destructive weapon detonated, a thick blinding bolt of iridescent white cutting the air to sink into Sabian’s thorax.

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Or it should have. The man twisted midair, avoiding the lethal charge and firing off another pulse before Forty-Two could track his path. The energy pulse tore into Forty-Two’s side, stripping more skin from his structure, scorching circuits, wires and hydraulics. He stumbled to the side, the CPU controlling his equilibrium faltering for a micro-second. …deploy exo-battle armor… The command code shot through his core unit, followed instantly by an alert alarm. …exo-battle armor offline… A pulse blast struck his shoulder. Another. He reeled backward, the sensory receptors in his right side spiking into overload. He spun, flinging the IAC’s bio-weapon from his hip as he did so, clamping his arm around its tiny torso to pin it to his chest. “Shoot again and I’ll crush its thorax.” The small, sweaty thing squirmed, fingers clawing at Forty-Two’s arm. “Sabian!” The docking bay’s siren abruptly fell silent, reverting instead to a dull, red flashing light that cast Thanatos in bloody shadows. “Let her go,” he ordered, his low growl cutting into the heavy silence, his pulse pistol targeting Forty-Two’s forehead. “Now.” “I have two missions to complete, Thanatos,” Forty-Two stated, ignoring the thrashing, squirming body in his grip as he kept his molecular disruptor trained on the assassin. “Return the bio-weapon known as M.E.Lii to the Interplanetary Alliance Council, and terminate Unit Zero agents Thanatos and Proserpina.” “Then you’re about to fail both.” “And how are you going to stop me? I have disengaged my external emergency deactivation function. Apart from the pulse pistol in your hand, I detect a strafer on your right thigh, a neural disruptor in your right boot, a synaptic neutralizer at the small of your back and a neo-energy gutting blade on your left biceps. None of these weapons are sufficient to destroy an R42 military/combat ’droid.” “I won’t need any of them.”

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Forty-Two narrowed his eyes, scanning the man again. His composed confidence was unpredicted. Unexpected. …zero undetected weapons… …bio-rhythms fluctuating… Tightening his hold on the still squirming bio-weapon, Forty-Two returned his attention to Thanatos’s face. What was he missing? “Sabian?” The soft sob shattered the heavy silence. The assassin’s stare slid to the bio-weapon and he gave it a small smile. “Remember my promise, Emylie,” he said, voice calm, soothing. “Remember, I will never break my word to you.” “Very touching,” Forty-Two said. He abruptly released his grip on the bioweapon, letting it free fall for a fraction of a second before closing his fingers around its neck to hold it dangling above the floor, its feet thrashing wildly in the air, its small hands clawing at his large one. “But --” …alert… …bio-rhythms fluctuating… …temporal shift detected… …temporal displacement detected… “But your time’s up, Metal Man.” The low snarl to Forty-Two’s right snapped his head around. His gaze locked on a pair of very angry silver eyes almost level with his own before, point zero zero four seconds later, a second Agent Thanatos pressed a strafer to his forehead and fired. A spreading wall of concentrated eax energy penetrated his teratanium skull, raining fire through his neural net. His sensory receptors exploded with impulses. Molten heat flooded his system. The fingers hooked into the IAC bio-weapon’s neck sprung open, releasing it. It squealed, falling toward the floor before he snatched it from the air again with his left hand and yanked it to his side. Keeping his molecular disruptor extended, he charged.

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He spun, swiping his right arm at the second Thanatos, his locked fingers tearing across the man’s cheek, gouging the flesh in bloody strips even as his logic circuits denied the man’s existence. A sizzling bolt of eo-charge struck his neck, and for a micro-second his whole system froze. …alert one system shutdown… …alert one system shutdown… …redirecting power to secondary processors… …E.S.O.U.L rebooting… A shudder wracked Forty-Two’s frame. “Sabian!” …E.S.O.U.L online… The child’s petrified scream snapped Forty-Two’s visual sensors back online. He turned, fear and rage and absolute guilt abruptly flooding through him, just in time to see the original Thanatos aim and fire the pulse pistol directly into his face. A wall of white code roared through his positronic matrix. …secondary processors offline… …E.S.O.U.L offline… “Pain” spiked into his rebooting core processor. He staggered backward, squeezing the squealing bio-weapon harder to his chest. Without his exo-battle armor he was more vulnerable than anticipated. He needed to halt the attack of the two men before his entire system shut down. Reaching for the bio-weapon with his free hand, he clamped his fingers over its forehead, pressing hard onto its small skull as he locked his stare on the original Thanatos. “I will crush its frontal lobe.” “I will tear you to pieces.” …alert… …bio-rhythms fluctuating… …temporal shift detected… …temporal displacement detected…

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“As will I.” “And I.” “And I.” “And you can bet your metal ass I will too.” Forty-Two rotated his head from left to right, his logic CPU again denying what his optical sensors detected. Three more Agent Thanatoses stood in the docking bay, all with identical fluctuating bio-rhythms, all leveling one weapon or another at his head. Five in total. He turned back to the original Thanatos. The one with Agent Proserpina’s scent on his flesh. “Do what you will, but know my fingers will shatter the M.E.Lii’s skull and crush its cerebrum before the first --” …E.S.O.U.L rebooting… Cold, sick guilt smashed into him. He froze. Confused. By the Maker, what… …error…E.S.O.U.L offline… He stared at Thanatos, the stink of Agent Proserpina stronger than ever in his olfactory sensors. “It will be a vegetable. A brainless lump. Retreat, or I will --” “Forty-Two!” A female voice cut across his demand. “Let go of Emylie. Now.” Forty-Two snapped straight, all his sensors zeroing in on the woman walking toward him from his right, her left cheek bruised and inflamed, charged sub-aotic pistol raised and pointed at him. …E.S.O.U.L rebooting… A tight churning sensation erupted in Forty-Two’s core processor. He blinked, gazing at the approaching woman, his grip on the wriggling bio-weap… child… M.E.L… Emyl… …E.S.O.U.L rebooting… “Falynn?” “Put her down, Forty-Two,” the female ordered. “Or I will turn you into a million scorched pieces of useless metal.” Brilliant blue eyes drilled into him. Emotionless. Unwavering. A killer’s eyes. And yet, underneath the ice, something he

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recognized. A flicker he’d seen more than once before. When he’d held her after bringing her to clima -…E.S.O.U.L online… Guilt, shame and horror flooded through him. Every circuit in his system burned with them. “Falynn?” “Put her down, Forty-Two,” Falynn ordered again, voice softer this time. “Please.” She took a step closer to him, weapon still trained on his head. “She’s scared. You’re scaring her.” He jerked his stare to the child in his arms, flinching at the absolute terror swimming in her wide, brown eyes. He could feel the fragile bones of her skull under his pressing fingers, the clammy hot feel of her flesh against their dermal layer. Her heart smashed against his arm, a tiny rapid beat. The acrid sting of her fear filled his nose. How could he be just one actuator pulse away from crushing her skull? What was he -…fatal error. E.S.O.U.L terminated… Complete stillness claimed Forty-Two’s structure. He lifted his head, turning his optical sensors on the Thanatos standing before him before locking them onto Agent Proserpina. “It should be scared,” he said, tightening his grip on the whimpering bioweapon’s head. “If the assassin you have been so loudly fucking makes the slightest move -- or any of his duplicates makes the slightest move -- I will sink my fingers into its pathetic human brain and give it a rather crude full-frontal lobotomy.” Thanatos’s nostrils flared. “And I will disassemble you, bolt by bolt, diode by pathetic diode, until nothing exists of you but a screaming voice box atop a pile of redundant components.” Forty-Two detected the rapid increase of five beating hearts around him. Adrenaline and cortisol leeched from all five of the assassins in thick, contemptuous bio-waves. If his E.S.O.U.L program functioned, he would be unnerved. If he required breath, he would surely be suffocating. But it was not and he did not. Nothing scared

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him now and he required nothing except primary mission command orders from the IAC. And those were clear. Return the bio-weapon alive, cognitive if possible. Terminate all Unit Zero agents. “Forty-Two.” Agent Proserpina’s soft voice drew his focus from Thanatos. He slid his stare to her face, scanning her bio-rhythms for evidence of deception or premeditative action. Nothing. She had never been as composed. Nor as calm. “This is not right,” she continued. “This is not who you are now.” A slight pulse anomaly shot through Forty-Two’s neural network. He blinked, head twitching to the left. Once. “Please, Forty-Two.” Falynn took a step closer. “Please. Let Emylie go.” Another pulse shot through his positronic matrix and without the necessary command code, his molecular disruptor abruptly retracted into his forearm. Dermal layer prickling with an unknown sensory stimulus, he stared at Falynn, the woman who had resurrected him from permanent shutdown. The woman who had activated his E.S.O.U.L, who allowed him to experience love. The woman he would have done anything for. The woman he would have died for. He stared at her, and then at the deatomizer in her hand. Aimed directly at his head. He frowned. Why was he hesitating? A kaleidoscope of images flashed through his neural network. Sharp, vivid images, saturated in color. A lifetime of memories stored in his positronic matrix since the first time his E.S.O.U.L was activated. Falynn making him laugh, telling him bad Old Earth jokes as they traveled through IAC space toward her next target. Falynn tending to a wound in his abdomen, her fingertips feathering the ragged gash in his biodermal layer with infinite care, her soft breath kissing the angry, damaged flesh. Falynn asking him how he felt, what he was thinking, what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go. Falynn smoothing her palms up his arms as she pressed her lips to his chest. Falynn arching over his body, her thighs gripping his hips, her breath short

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and shallow as she rode his climax until he cried out with concentrated pleasure. Falynn. Falynn. Falynn. He blinked, staring at Falynn Mavek, a sense of joy and freedom and pure release pouring through him. His neural-net programming had changed, his positronic matrix behaving as if his E.S.O.U.L program was still operational. Emotions are abstract concepts fed by memories, stimulated by the past, and his memories had become more than his programming. Much more. He had become sentient. In its truest form. And with that state came the knowledge he should not return the child, Emylie, to the IAC, no matter what their orders. Nor kill -…IAC remote hostile uplink reestablished… …primary directive core programming override… …activate combat assault mode… …engage and terminate all immediate contacts…

Chapter Eight Falynn frowned at Forty-Two. Blistered, ragged strips of skin hung from his structure. Vile purple fluid oozed from numerous wounds on his chest and shoulders. She’d never seen him so damaged. So broken. Kirs, how did he still function? She shook her head, struggling to ignore the hideous damage he’d sustained. She needed to focus on his eyes, not the singed circuits and wires erupting from the blackened side of his face. “Forty-Two?” For one brief moment she’d swear she’d seen the corners of his mouth curl into a slight smile. For one brief moment his brutal hold on the little girl with the pale blonde hair staring with such terrified trust at Talano seemed to falter. And then his eyes had shimmered iridescent yellow, a hideous color they’d never glowed before, and his tattered, scorched face became expressionless. “What’s going on, Forty-Two?” He didn’t respond, his strange, disturbing yellow eyes locked completely on her. Behind him, two of Talano’s dimensional others shifted their stances, the movement so slight she doubted anyone else would have noticed. But she did. Even if they weren’t her Talano, she knew them well. Knew every nuance in their bodies. They were about to attack. She had to do something. Before they all died. Including her. “Forty-Two,” she snapped. “I order you to stand down and report.” The ’droid’s eyes flickered. Yellow. Red. Yellow. Blue. Yellow again. A spasm seemed to wrack through his body and his jaw bunched, the teratanium metal angle bursting through his blackened, blistered dermal layer. Emylie cried out as the arm pinning her to his massive chest tensed, her little feet kicking futilely at Forty-Two’s thighs, her hands scratching at his flayed, fluid-seeping forearm. He flinched, and his eyes flickered back to blue.

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“What the fri’ac is going on?” Talano’s growl made her start. She shot him a quick look, wishing to Kirs she knew. “Forty-Two,” she repeated, lifting the volume of her voice. “Report.” “The IAC are remotely connected to my core operating system and have uploaded a programming change.” The statement, spoken with such a matter-of-fact tone, made Falynn’s heart clench. She shook her head, taking a step forward, ignoring the sound of Talano -- all the Talanos -- leveling their weapons on the ’droid’s forehead. “No.” She shook her head again. “They can’t do that. I disabled the remote uplink function when I reactivated you.” “No. You did not. The remote uplink function has a failsafe override controlled by the IAC.” His eyes flickered yellow, his left arm twitched, and for a terrifying moment Falynn thought she heard the whine of his molecular disruptor charging up. “They can’t do that,” she repeated. Forty-Two’s ravaged face grew contemptuous, angry. He snapped straighter, fresh fluid spurting from the pulse wounds in his shoulder, the diodes in his eyes glowing yellow, and then another shudder wracked his body and his eyes shimmered back to blue. “They have enabled my primary assault and terminate mode,” he said, eyebrows creasing into a small frown. “I cannot change this programming.” “What does that mean?” Without breaking eye contact with Falynn, Forty-Two removed his hand from Emylie’s head and slowly, gently lowered her to the floor. A sob tore from the young girl’s throat and she ran forward, throwing herself into Talano’s arms. He scooped her up and hugged her to his chest, murmuring soft nonsensical sounds, rocking her from side to side even as his stare stayed firmly locked on Forty-Two. Falynn watched the heart-wrenching display for a fraction of a second before turning back to Forty-Two. He stood motionless, his eyes a soft, deep blue. “I am sorry, Falynn,” he said, molecular disruptor emerging from his forearm. Falynn stared at him, her throat squeezing tight. “Sorry for what, Forty-Two?”

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The images filled his head. Poured through his positronic matrix. Vivid images rich with color and emotion. Memories. His memories. Of Falynn. Of his life. …molecular disruptor charging… A smile pulled at Forty-Two’s lips. …molecular disruptor charged… He flicked a quick look at the original Talano, the man who would heal Falynn’s wounded soul where he could not, before returning his gaze to Falynn. “It is time for you to make noise, Unit Zero Agent Proserpina. A lot of noise.” …IAC command control establishing reconnection… He raised his arm… …local host override… …and locked his molecular disruptor on its target. …terminate in five… four… three… Falynn’s eyes snapped wide. She lunged forward, arms reaching for him. “FortyTwo! Nooo!” …one… The resonating lector-pulse punched Falynn in the gut as Forty-Two discharged his weapon directly into the side of his head, blasting its structure into a million particles of metal dust, completely destroying his positronic matrix. She stumbled to a halt, staring at the now headless form, watching the lifeless remains of the R42 military/combat android stand frozen for a split moment, until it collapsed to the ground with a solid, jarring thud. Kirs, no. She dropped to her knees, mindless of the multiple Talanos watching her, and placed her hand on the R42’s hard chest, the artificial flesh cold and clammy under her palm. “Oh, Forty-Two.” “Falynn?” Talano -- her Talano -- lowered into a crouch beside her, his arms still cradling a silent Emylie, the little girl buried into his chest with her thumb in her mouth. He studied her with unreadable silver eyes, his expression revealing nothing.

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“I never told him,” she said, turning back to the ’droid. “Told him what?” “When I first repaired and resurrected Forty-Two he asked me why I’d activated his emotion program. I never told him.” “Why did you activate his E.S.O.U.L?” “I found Forty-Two close to permanent shutdown almost a year after you disappeared. I couldn’t tell him why I resurrected him when he first asked because I didn’t know.” She looked at Talano. “I do now.” “What do you know, Proserpina?” The steady calm in his voice made her chest tight. “I’m an assassin,” she said, turning back to gaze blankly at Forty-Two’s motionless torso, a sardonic smile playing with her lips. “My existence is about bringing death. I’m very good at it. The second best assassin Unit Zero has. But when I found Forty-Two, I saw him as the chance to give life, not take it.” She paused, feeling six pairs of eyes on her, five belonging to the same man, a deadly assassin, one belonging to a little girl capable of healing all the sickness in the known systems. Death and life. “When you disappeared,” she continued without looking at Talano, “you took with you my capacity to feel. Everything I was, everything I did, was because of you. When you weren’t there, I became hollow. Emotionless. Empty. A true killing machine. I hated who I’d become. If I could give an android designed not to feel anything the chance to experience something so abstractly vital as emotions, I could almost convince myself I still had a heart. And, by Kirs, he felt. He felt everything. His E.S.O.U.L felt more than I ever could and I truly believed I’d given him what I didn’t have anymore. A soul.” “You always had a soul, Falynn. It was your soul I fell in love with, not your ability to kill.” She closed her eyes at Talano’s softly spoken words and released a sigh. “But my ability to kill defined who I was. You made it that way, Agent Thanatos. Yet when we

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made love that night in my quarters, when you finally held me and kissed me, I suddenly realized I wanted so much more. I wanted…” She trailed off, cheeks growing hot. “In Forty-Two I created the person I believed I could have been with you,” she continued, needing to explain to herself, as much as to Talano. “I knew he’d fallen in love with me, that his emotions program was functioning at its most profound and abstract level, but I could not love him back. I was empty without you, Talano. No matter how many times I told myself Forty-Two filled the void you’d created, I was empty. And the emptier I became, the more proficient I was at killing, until I existed only to end life.” She swallowed, lifting her head to look at him. “And then I was sent here to kill a nameless target and retrieve a stolen weapon.” The corners of Talano’s mouth curled slightly. “And in doing so were reborn.” His right hand left Emylie’s back and he raised it to Falynn’s face, cupping her jaw gently, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip. “Again.” He leant forward, replacing his caress on her mouth with his lips. The kiss was soft, a mere whisper of contact, and yet it sent a ribbon of heat more explosive than a sun into the pit of her belly. She pulled back, staring deeply into his eyes. “What happens now?” Talano gave her a small, lopsided smile. “Your days of being a killing machine are over.” “They are?” He nodded. “Yes, they are.” Emylie straightened a little in Talano’s arms, withdrawing her thumb from her mouth to look at Falynn with solemn brown eyes. “And Sabian Talano always keeps his word. Always.”

*** He laid her down on his bed, his gaze roaming her naked form as he removed his trousers. His nostrils flared, his breath long and deep and ragged, the only sign he battled for control of his body.

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Falynn watched him through half-lowered eyelids, her own breath quick and shallow with anticipation. Emylie lay tucked into her own bed on the other side of the apartment, sleeping deeply, the nightmare of Forty-Two’s attack soon lost to the safety of Talano’s arms and presence. Falynn understood that all too well. When Sabian wrapped his arms around her, she felt like nothing in the world could ever harm her. It was a glorious feeling, one she would willingly share with Emylie until the end of time. When the head of ’Port Adana Security had insisted on talking to Talano about the situation, the little girl had -somewhat reluctantly -- stayed with Falynn, her tiny hand holding Falynn’s tightly. They’d sat and waited together, silent for a long moment until Emylie turned to her and said, “Do you love Sabian?” Falynn’s face had flooded with heat at the unexpected, upfront question. “Yes,” she’d answered, not wanting to hide anything from her. “I do.” Emylie had studied her for an even longer, silent moment, wide brown eyes swimming with solemn curiosity before she nodded her head, once, and Falynn had smiled at how Thanatos-ish the action was. “I do too,” she’d replied. She’d tucked herself into the side of Falynn’s body then, as if the matter was closed, asleep within minutes. Falynn’s throat had squeezed tight, and before she knew it, she’d been gently stroking her fingers through the sleeping child’s hair, a feeling of complete and utter contentment warming her heart -- that mysterious organ she’d long thought lost to her. Yet in the space of a day, she’d found it. Birth, death, rebirth. She truly was Proserpina. “I do not want to fuck you, Falynn Mavek,” Sabian declared, his eyes seeming to glow with a silver fire as they held her gaze. “I want to make love to you.” His calm statement sent a stabbing bolt of wet heat into Falynn’s very core. She sucked in a swift breath, a slight whimper escaping her lips. “I want you to make love to me, Sabian Talano.” The engorged cock jutting up from between his thighs twitched at her response, its venous length and bulbous, distended head all but stealing her breath. A glistening

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bead of pre-cum leaked from the tiny slit in its tip, and she licked her lips, longing to taste the sweet-saltiness of his desire. Slowly climbing onto the bed, he balanced on his knees between her thighs, smoothing his hands up her legs until his fingertips brushed the swollen, throbbing lips of her pussy. Lowering his head to her belly, he touched his tongue to her flushed skin, just above her navel. “You taste so good.” He investigated the shallow indent with his lips and tongue, the simple and yet so very erotic exploration making her pussy constrict. Fresh cream slicked her inner thighs, turning the air to a heady musk. The scent of her own pleasure and the feel of Sabian’s mouth on her skin were intoxicating and she closed her eyes, reveling in the assault on her senses. Kirs, she never wanted this to end. Drawing little circles around her navel with the tip of his tongue, Sabian slid his hands under her butt, lifting her hips off the bed slightly before moving his mouth from her belly to the smooth curve of her sex. He kissed her mons, flicked his tongue over her pussy’s folds, lapped at her juices wetting the soft lips. She moaned, pressing her feet harder to the mattress, pushing her damp heat harder to his mouth. His tongue dipped into her core, stabbing into her with rapid, rolling strokes until a cry burst from her lips. She arched her back, the squirming tension building deep in the pit of her belly and setting her on fire. Fisting the sheet below her, she willed her orgasm to wait, to wait, but when Sabian took the tiny nub of her clit into his mouth and sucked, she could not hold it back. Liquid rapture surged through her. She bucked, her moans filling the room, her cunt gushing with fresh cream. And still Sabian made love to her. He feasted on her pleasure, drank of it, his mouth exploring her sex with such masterful thoroughness she came again and again. When she feared she could take no more, that he’d drained her body of its very last climax, he lifted his head from between her thighs, rose up onto his knees and offered her his thick, rigid shaft. “Taste me, Falynn.”

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His low, husky command thrummed through her. Nipples pinching into tight tips of aching flesh, she moved, repositioning herself until her lips hovered over the blood-purple head of his cock. She cupped his swollen, heavy sac with one hand, supporting her weight with the other before, slowly, slowly, she took his length into her mouth. “Fri’ac, that feels so fucking good.” Sabian’s raw groan sent a ripple of delight up Falynn’s spine. She slid her lips further down his cock, tonguing the round hardness of his balls as she massaged their weight with her fingers. He groaned again, his hands knotting in her hair, holding her head still as, with one, two, three savage jerks of his hips, he erupted in her mouth. “Fuck!” The word tore from his throat, low and hoarse with pleasure. The fingers in her hair curled tighter as the waves of his orgasm pulsed through him, small spasms claiming his cock with each one. He pumped into her mouth with slowly decreasing strokes, his seed filling her throat until, spent, he released his grip on her hair. “Fri’ac, Falynn,” he murmured, breath shallow. “You know I’m never going to let you go again, don’t you?” She withdrew her mouth from his cock, pressing a soft kiss to its still seeping tip before looking up at him, letting her lips curl into a small smile. “You know if you tried, I would hunt you down and kill you, don’t you?” He looked down at her, his silver eyes twinkling with a light she’d never seen in their depths before. Contentment. “I’m thirsty.” A grin played with the corners of his mouth. “Know anyone who can make an Irridian Slap?”

Epilogue Doctor Jules Porziquia waved his left hand over the locking sensor beside the sole entry into his personal lab, dancing the empty hypo-needle he’d retrieved from the animal testing sector over the fingers of his right hand as he waited for the heavy door to open. His latest subject was within the soundproof walls, bound naked to the centre slab, probably sobbing silently as always. Why the little brat didn’t just suck it up and accept his fate, Porziquia didn’t know. Who knew the mind of a child, even one as special and unusual as A.R.O.n? A hot thrill of excitement shot through him as he thought of the next stage in A.R.O.n’s testing. Extraction was always a noisy affair, especially when it required such a large needle. He chuckled. Truth be known, the size of the hypo was irrelevant at this early stage of the experiment. He just enjoyed seeing the abject terror in the subject’s face. So far, A.R.O.n was proving to be just as entertaining as M.E.Lii had been. Another thrill rippled through him and he raised the empty syringe to eye level, smiling broadly as he studied its long, pointed needle. According to the director of Unit Zero, it would not be long before he had the female child back in his possession. He was impatient to resume testing on her. Three years had passed since he’d had her in his lab. Her tears alone had offered months of data. Thankfully, she hadn’t been killed when he’d requested it. What would her juvenile DNA produce that her infant DNA hadn’t? Gods, what would combining her mutated g-nome with A.R.O.n’s present? Porziquia licked his lips. He had wet dreams every night thinking about the possibilities their combination created, and he hadn’t even begun to theorize what would happen when they both reached puberty. When their adolescent hormones raged out of control.

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“One day at a time, Jules.” He smirked, watching the door finally slide open. “That eventuality is too exciting to contemplate right now. Just wait until you have the girl back before you begin to extrapolate that type of hypothesis.” Dancing the hypo-needle across the backs of his fingers again, he stepped into his dark lab. “Lights,” he said loudly, crossing to the centre slab before the room illuminated. He liked to be standing beside A.R.O.n when the lights flickered on. He always got a kick out of the petrified expression on the boy’s -Harsh white light flooded the room and Porziquia ground to a halt. The slab was empty. “Missing something?” A squeal burst from Porziquia’s throat at the sound of the deep, male voice behind him. He dropped the needle, the glass syringe shattering at his feet as he spun about. “Who are you?” he croaked, staring at the tall man with the cold silver eyes standing between him and the closed door. The tall man with the cold silver eyes and a big gun. A very big gun. His heartbeat tripled and his balls shriveled up closer to his groin. “How did you get in here?” The man smiled, the slow, deliberate action not lessening the icy menace in his unwavering gaze one iota. “You may call me Unit Zero Agent Thanatos. And I came in through the door.” Porziquia’s mouth went dry. Unit Zero? Gods, no. “Wh… what do you want?” he stammered, shuffling backward until his butt smacked against the cold slab behind him. “What are you going to do to me?” “I want you to know Emylie is happy. Truly happy.” The man’s silver eyes shimmered and he took a step forward. “And I’m going to erase your vile existence from every temporal and dimensional plane there is.” His cold, frightening smile stretched wider. “Starting with this one.”

Lexxie Couper Lexxie’s not a deviant. She just has a deviant’s imagination and a desire to entertain readers with her words. Add the two together and you get darkly erotic romances with a twist of horror, sci-fi and the paranormal! When she’s not submerged in the worlds she creates, Lexxie’s life revolves around her family; a husband who thinks she’s insane, a pony-sized mutt who thinks he’s a lap-dog, and her daughters, who both utterly captured her heart and changed her life forever. Living in Australia makes it a bit tricky for Lexxie to pop by for coffee, but she still loves to chat! Contact her at [email protected] or find her at www.lexxiecouper.com or her blog http://lexxiecouper.wordpress.com

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Phase equilibria, phase diagrams and phase transformations: their thermodynamic basis

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Phase equilibria, phase diagrams and phase transformations: their thermodynamic basis

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