Born

Would she ever stop shivering when he called her that? Ignoring the tingling in her breasts and between her thighs, Allora opened the journal and began to read aloud.

Most of the entries described their world, as well as the alien one young Cassandra had lived in. With every page, she grew more and more convinced that the book her Bred had unearthed was the first chronicle in the Cassandra Prophesies. The girl never saw what the machines had done to make the earth stop spinning, but she did warn of the machine sympathizers, people who related to the cold mechanical intelligence better than their own kind.

In great cities below the mantel of the planet, the Cyborgs live and thrive. Using technology and letting it use them, they are an offshoot from the natural progression of the human species, the one Borns fear because they cannot stop evolution, the ones they will give anything to stop.

“This can’t be right.” Allora murmured, just as the hatch to the vehicle cracked open. Rothguard glanced in at them, cocking his head to the side.

“We need to leave now.”

Allora rose to her feet and didn’t bother asking why. If the Cyborg wanted her to know, he’d tell her.

“Cormack needs something to wear.”

“Yes.” He tossed in a baggy flight suit. Allora frowned at the thin fabric. “It’s not thermally lined.”

“No need.” The Cyborg smirked at her. “Was he worth sleeping in the shuttle for?”

For the second time in her life, Allora felt her cheeks heat with total burning humiliation. Cormack stared at her and she held out her hands, explaining.

“I didn’t want them to move you while you were still unconscious.”

“I appreciate your consideration, Task Mistress.”

His eyes promised he would thank her privately later.

Stepping in front of Cormack so he could dress she faced the Cyborg. “We require sustenance as well.”

“Noted.”

The eerie stillness of the Cyborg might have unnerved some people. There was no shifting in either body or gaze, just a patience defying natural order. He waited for Cormack to move alongside her, wrapping a hand around her waist in a reassuring and possessive maneuver. It would have been more subtle for him to shout, she is mine, as he glared at the Cyborg. Allora didn’t mind at all, even looking over at him adoringly to underscore the point. She’d already announced that they were mated, so why hide affection she felt?

Rothguard appeared unfazed by the display.

Allora didn’t doubt that the machine man experienced sentiment, he just chose when and where to show it.

They probably didn’t even rate as a blip on his emotional radar. He inclined his head and led them out of the open vehicle.

Allora stopped dead in her tracks so quickly that Cormack slammed into her back. The tunneling vehicle had stopped on a hilltop overlooking what appeared to be a series of lakes. Boats floated on the water, a thoroughfare between several settlements teaming with life. What looked like great palaces had been carved out of the rock, the architecture making a mockery of the paltry chambers the Born lived in.

 God, the heat down here. Perspiration formed immediately on her brow, under her hair and ran down between her breasts. They must be near the center of the planet, for this sultry moist air to be sustained like a tropical jungle from the old stories.

And water, so much water, more than enough to hydrate the world anew. She yearned to strip off her armor and dive in, the sapphire blue the same hue as Cormack’s irises.

Careful, Task Mistress. You can’t afford to turn into a sap.

Beside her Cormack stiffened. “Is that fresh water?”

Allora laughed at the absurdity of the notion, but her amusement cut off when Rothguard said,

“Indeed.”

“How is that possible?” Glancing down from the steep elevation of landing zone she could not take in all the blue. “The great lakes were engulfed by the northern polar ocean. There are no other source of freshwater on the planet this large.”

Rothguard surveyed her neutrally. “Is there a question coming?”

Wiseass Cyborg. Squaring off her shoulders she lifted her chin and ordered, “Lead on.”

Her eyes had to redefine color to take it all in, the vividness foreign yet so much more natural than the grays and reds and blacks she had known. Everything felt cleaner, brighter, bioluminescent plants in every color of the rainbow, including some she had no name for. No artificial light source sustained them, yet they flourished between cracks in the rocks, in the sandy soil, everywhere. She looked to Cormack, wanting nothing more than to explore this spectacular new world, buried deep within their old one, with him.