Read Online Taunting Krell by Laurann Dohner - Free Book Online

have been about happiness and giving your people the rights they fought and died for when they rebelled. I swore I’d never kill a cyborg and I won’t. I promise you though if some asshole tries to turn me into a breeder I will castrate him. I won’t become a baby machine. A woman fought for your kind once and she’d do it again.”
    He watched her silently. “We’ve realized recently that we made mistakes.”
    Her shoulders sagged. “Please just leave. I’m having a bad day. I discovered you survived, made total crap out of the freedom you’ve been given, and now once again the body I’ve been put into has another drawback. You wouldn’t try to force your laws on me if I were totally human. I don’t want anything to do with you if this is what you’ve become.”
    “Our creator was brilliant if not mentally damaged in his logic.”
    “Yeah.”
    “He is deceased?”
    “He passed eleven years ago. He planned to do this.” She patted her good leg. “Take on a newer, younger body, but he didn’t get the chance. He died too suddenly to reach his lab. He wanted to wait as long as possible to avoid losing his prestige but he also feared if the Government knew it was possible to trade out bodies they’d realize what he’d done for me. He had to choose to remain who he was or become someone new. He may have been a monster but he didn’t totally suck.”
    “I’ll consider telling Mavo about you. A familiar face may comfort you, E—” He barely avoided saying her name.
    “That name actually causes me intense pain. I’m Cyan now.” She met his stare. “I don’t want to hold on to anything from that life anymore. The one good thing she ever did has turned out to be a sad, horrible thing.”
    His mouth opened but she held up her hand to silence him.
    “Don’t. You can’t excuse what you’ve done. Don’t tell Mavo I’m here. I don’t want to cause him any more pain and I’m so angry that I’d say things that will shred him if he’s half the man he used to be. I shouldn’t have ever told any of you anything but seeing that tall, scarred cyborg made me stop protecting myself because I knew who he was. I hoped something from my past remained—a friend—but I don’t have any. Not here, not with your kind, and I just want to be alone. Lock me up and throw away the key. Just don’t think I’ll allow you to force me to make more cyborgs. It won’t happen.”
    Zorus hesitated. “No male will force you. I’ll make sure of that.”
    Cyan watched Zorus turn and leave her room. Her eyes closed and she sank back against the pillows of the bed. She fought the urge to curl up onto her side and have a good cry. The “history lesson” had left her with a migraine. At least Mavo had survived, they’d been friends, and she’d loved him. That had to be enough to make up for the horrors she’d uncovered. He might live in a screwed-up society but he had escaped from Earth.
    * * * * *
    Anger burned through Krell as he glared at Zorus, who had buzzed at his front door to request admittance. He stood in the open doorway to block the man from entering him home. “What do you want?”
    “I came from Medical.”
    “I don’t want to discuss that treacherous spy. I didn’t harm her leg. I admit I lost my temper when she mentioned Mavo’s name but she touched me first. It was unnerving and I couldn’t gauge her honesty for some reason until I realized she’s not human. I was careful not to cause real harm with my rough treatment of her. I judged her weight and height, and adjusted the force I used so I wouldn’t break any of her bones when I threw her. I made sure she’d land without severe damage. I only wanted to shake her up.”
    “I’m not here about that.”
    “What are you doing here? You’re off duty. You promised your female, Charlie, no business during your honeymoon.”
    “Charlie understood when I explained after the council informed me of the female’s unknown origins. I wanted to see and