Born of Fire

She heard him moving around behind her. “You really should develop some modesty.”


He laughed again. “Why bother? I never have enough people around me to worry about it, and in jail you don’t have any privacy anyway, so you learn to not think about other people’s sensibilities, or your own.”

Her heart clenched at a fact he glazed over and joked about. She knew from her own brief experience how brutally kept they were. And he didn’t even talk about the routine cavity searches and other horrors prisoners were subjected to.

Her own brief experience with having no control over what was done to her body had been bad enough. She couldn’t imagine how many times he’d been violated and at an age when someone should have still been rocking him to sleep.

It offended and disgusted her on his behalf.

He cleared his throat. “It’s safe now. I’m dressed.”

Not sure if she could trust him when he seemed to delight in embarrassing her, she turned around slowly and sighed in relief. He really was dressed.

As she looked him over, she realized the bruises had all but healed on his face and neck as well. Only a faint telltale sign of light yellow across his left cheek betrayed the fact that he’d been severely bruised just the day before.

“Wow,” she said, drawing closer. “Prinapin does work.” And before she thought about her actions, she reached up and fingered his stubbled cheek, his arched brow, and the little wrinkle between his brows.

His eyes darkened. Mesmerized, she watched the emotions flicker behind his dark gaze. Mercy, he was gorgeous and . . .

Suddenly a voice growled behind them. “Hands up, scum. You’re under arrest!”





CHAPTER 9


Syn snapped around, ready to attack.

Then he gaped in utter disbelief. No . . .

It couldn’t be . . . “Vik?”

The little metallic bird postured on the windowsill, eyeing him coldly. Vik’s paint was iridescent and glossed—something the mecha had never liked, since he said it made him look like a girlie bird. “I’m surprised you remember my name.” Vik paused before he added an acerbic “Asshole.”

Syn laughed as he rolled away from Shahara. “You prickly little shit, get over here.”

Vik swooped in to land between the two of them on the bed. He burst apart, shifting from bird form to that of a more traditional mechbot. With his hand, he smacked Syn in the arm. “I thought you were coming back for me.”

“I tried. I really did, but by the time I could, I figured you’d be gone.”

Vik hissed then looked at Shahara. “He lie to you like that?”

Shahara’s mouth worked as she tried to place this creature in Syn’s life. “Who exactly are you?”

He literally bristled. His skin flicked up like spikes before it settled down again. “Oh that’s great. Your girlfriend doesn’t even know me.” He smacked Syn again. “Traitor.”

Syn grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up to dangle by it. “Hit me again, and I’m putting you in a compactor.”

“You might as well. You two-timing bastard.”

Shahara frowned. “What are you two to each other?”

Syn set him back down on the bed. “Vik is one of the first things I created when I was a kid.”

“I was your partner.”

He smiled. “Vik was my partner. When my father used to send me on jobs, Vik was my eyes and ears to make sure I got in and got out.”

“Yeah, and how does he repay me? He abandons me the first chance he gets.”

“That’s not true. You were supposed to watch out for Digger.”

Vik ignored him. “Does he call? No. Does he email or even text me? No. He just ran off and left me here to rust and die.” He turned back to Syn. “You really suck as a friend.”

“I do suck as a friend. I’m sorry.”

“Mmm-hmm. You think you can sweet-talk me? Who you been two-timing me with anyway? Some low-tech battery-operated device? I hope it shocked you every time you touched it.”

Syn laughed. “There’s no one else, Vik. You’re the only mecha I could ever stand.”

Vik shook his head. “Lies, lies, lies. They just roll off your tongue like slobber off a dog’s snout.”

Shahara wrinkled her nose at the graphic image.

“Hey, if it makes you feel better, I went to prison because I didn’t have you at my back.”

“I would say you deserved that, but even I’m not that cold.”

Shahara was fascinated by the AI. It was extremely sophisticated and very well programmed. “How old were you when you created . . .” She stopped herself from saying “this” as she didn’t want to offend the mecha. “Him?”

“Seven, and I did some modifications over the years.”

Wow. She was impressed. This showed a level of skill that was unrivaled and to have been so young . . .

Syn had never been a typical kid.

“Is there anything you can’t do?”