Abiogenesis (12 page)

Releasing her legs, he tumbled on top of her, scooping her into a tight embrace and covered her mouth in a deep kiss that seemed in direct opposition to his possession of her body as he continued thrusting inside of her in hard, sharp thrusts as if he were intent on stabbing her to death.

She felt as if she were dying--of pleasure too intense to contain, felt blackness creep in around her as her body continued to shudder and convulse in release. He wrenched his mouth from hers and released a growl of satisfaction as his body abruptly answered the call of hers and yielded him up to his own release. Shuddering, he half collapsed on top of her, struggling to catch his breath. After a moment, he gathered himself and rolled off of her onto the bed beside her. To her surprise, he took her with him, tucking her tightly against his side as if he would never let her go.

For the first time since she’d met him, she accepted the feeling unquestioningly, accepted the curious warmth and sense of peace that flowed through her as she settled against him and gave herself up to the urge to slip away from consciousness.

She slept so deeply, she hardly stirred when he moved away from her in the predawn, dressed and left her in soul possession of her cell. A sense of well-being filled her when she rose finally ... a sense that lasted until her noon meal was delivered by a female cyborg.

Although she said nothing, the woman was openly hostile. After doing nothing more than plunking a tray of food inside the door, she slammed it shut again, locked it, tugged on the chain a couple of times to make certain it would hold, and then left again without once uttering a word.

It was Dalia’s first real taste of being a prisoner among them. Reuel, she realized, had been angry with her and distrustful, but he had also given her the sense, from the very first, that he felt she belonged with them, that he wanted to accept her.

She wondered if the woman represented the general feelings toward her, or if she had a personal reason for being so hostile. That thought brought others that were not welcome and left her with a vague sense of uneasiness and anger.

Boredom chased both away as the day wore on, however. As she had the day before, she spent most of her time pacing and peering through the crevices between the upright posts, trying to figure out what was happening. She could see nothing and she began to wonder if this was to be her routine and how long they, or rather Reuel, would consider it necessary to keep her under lock and key.

She was fairly certain the boredom would drive her mad if it continued long. She was accustomed to being active. Being imprisoned, with nothing to occupy her but her doubts and fears began to weigh upon her before she’d spent her second day in the small cell.

On the third day, however, all hell broke loose.

Chapter Twelve

"If you only meant to hold me prisoner I can’t imagine why you even bothered to bring me here," Dalia said coldly when Reuel arrived with her evening meal as he had the day before. She’d been hopeful of seeing him all day long but as the day wore on and boredom set in, irritation with him had set in, as well.

He studied her a long moment before he moved across the room and set the tray he was carrying down. "I told you why we brought you."

Her lips tightened. "Only to see if I can produce a living being? What then? What if it’s just some horrible, malformed creature? It isn’t human. The computer cannot identify it and therefore cannot ascertain the ‘normality’ of it.

"You implied ... more," she finished with a touch of petulance.

"You are carrying the child of a new race of beings. The computer cannot be expected to analyze it with no data, but there is no reason to believe that it isn’t perfectly healthy and normal ... for a cyborg. Is that why you’re angry? You’re afraid for the child?"

Instead of answering, she looked away from him, realizing he was right. She was afraid. She’d been too shocked when she’d first learned of it to absorb that she was to become a mother. But her belly, once concave when she lay flat, had filled in, and then had begun to round outward with its growth, making it impossible to ignore even if she’d wanted to once she’d realized what the change meant. In any case, since she’d learned of it, she’d had far too much time to do nothing but think. She’d not only begun to feel a tentative pleasure in the idea, she’d also begun to wonder about the tiny being growing inside of her and to worry that something would go wrong.

Taking her silence as an affirmation, he moved toward her, kneeling beside the bed where she sat. "Nature has seen fit to intervene on our behalf. Even though our creators had no mercy upon us, or empathy for what they had done in creating us and then leaving us in limbo, neither human nor machine, nature has taken us the next step in evolution, made us beings in our own right.

"It’s something to rejoice in, not fear. I’m as certain of it as I have ever been of anything."

Dalia looked at him doubtfully. "Nature has produced as many disasters as man. Even man no longer trusts his destiny entirely to the whims of nature. How safe are we to do so?"

He studied her for several moments and finally moved to sit on the cot next to her, pulling her onto his lap. "In the beginning, I had no goal in mind, no plan for a future I couldn’t even conceive. I left only because I couldn’t bear to be among humans and not be accepted as one, because I wanted the right to make my own choices, to make my own life. I hated them then, but I feel no animosity toward them now. All I want is freedom, and peace to build my own world, with my own people.

"I am ... as afraid as you are that something will go wrong, but it’s not because I expect it will so much as it’s because I want it so much."

Dalia stiffened when Reuel pulled her onto his lap, not the least because she wasn’t ready to forgive him for ignoring her all day. She found, though, that there was a seductive quality to being held in such a way that had nothing to do with sexual arousal, but everything to do with feeling as if one belonged. Slowly, as his voice washed over her, she relaxed. "And now? What is it that you plan to do?"

He hesitated. "Wait."

"For the birth of the child?"

"Among other things."

And what then, she wondered? Would he have no further use for her? Would he simply discard her? "Human gestation takes between nine and ten months, almost a year. Unless the rapid cell regeneration that makes us heal faster also effects the growth of the child, that could be ... many more months. You’ll keep me prisoner till then?"

Again, he hesitated. "Until my heart tells me that you accept ... or that you will never accept."

"What is it that you want, truly?"

Hooking a finger under her chin, he nudged her face up and kissed her lightly, then scooped her from his lap, dropped her onto the bed, and handed her the tray of food.

"Eat."

She picked up her fork and began to eat. "You’re not going to answer that, are you?"

He scrubbed his hands over his face. "Honestly? I don’t want to think about it. Not now. Not when things are still so uncertain."

She allowed the subject to drop, certain she could dig no more out of him. As before, he’d hinted that there could be much more for them, but he refused to be pinned down.

In any case, it occurred to her presently that they would probably go down to the pool to bathe as they had the night before and her appetite for food vanished. He didn’t disappoint her--on any level.

When she’d finished and set the tray aside, he rose and escorted her to the pool. Unlike the night before, however, he removed the manacles and, as she undressed, he stripped his own clothing off. Anticipation tightened in her belly as she moved down to the pool with her bathing supplies.

She quickly discovered, however, that Reuel was anything but predictable. She’d no sooner stepped gingerly into the edge of the pool than he sailed past her, landing in the middle of the pool so hard he created a twenty-foot blast radius of displaced water, drenching her abruptly from head to toe. Gasping from surprise, Dalia pushed the soaked hair from her eyes and whirled to look at him.

He was floating on his back, a grin of pure mischief lighting his eyes and his face in a way that made her heart stutter to a halt almost painfully in her chest. She felt an answering smile curl her own lips, despite her disappointment over the fact that he did not, apparently, intend to assault her--not sexually anyway. "You ... asshole!" she said, half laughing, half in irritation. "I’m soaking wet!"

He didn’t look the least put out by the insult. Instead, he chuckled. "That’s the general idea when you bathe in water."

Glaring at him, she slapped the water with her hand, sending a light spray into his face. His grin vanished as he mopped the water from his face, but his eyes still gleamed with amusement. "This means war, woman," he growled, getting to his feet and advancing on her.

Dalia gaped at him for several moments before finally, with a shriek, she whirled to flee. He caught her around the waist, snatching her off her feet and spun with her in a tight circle that made her head swim. Her stomach went weightless. When he set her abruptly on her feet once more, she staggered dizzily and fell back against him, knocking him off balance. He landed on his butt, sending up another geyser of water, and Dalia landed on his lap.

She was laughing when she turned to look at him. "I haven’t done that since I...." Her amusement vanished. A sense of terrible loss replaced it. "I’ve never done that, have I?"

Reuel’s amusement died. His gaze flickered over her face searchingly. Finally, he cupped her face in his hands, carefully smoothing the wet tendrils of hair from her cheeks. "The memories you give our child will be real--from now on, all of your memories will be yours."

Dalia nodded, finally, completely, understanding what he’d been trying to tell her for the past several weeks. He wasn’t asking her to give up something she had for a dream that might never materialize. He was telling her she had never had it to begin with, that she couldn’t lose what had never been hers, but she had a great deal to gain if she was strong enough and determined enough to reach for it.

Understanding didn’t make the hurt go away, however, and she couldn’t prevent tears from filling her eyes. She felt as if she’d just learned of the deaths of her parents all over again, the same wrenching pain of loss, even though she knew they had never been her parents at all. The memories of her happy childhood with them had buoyed her spirits even when she missed them. Now, she didn’t even have that.

She had what Reuel had--nothing, only a moment of awakening.

Oddly enough, that realization dulled the hurt as nothing else. "You didn’t even have the illusion."

He shrugged, withdrawing both physically and emotionally. "Illusions bring no comfort."

She watched him as he waded to the edge of the pool and gathered the soap and cloths, knowing he was wrong. Her mind might tell her that everything Reuel said about her programming was true, that nothing she believed she remembered had been real, but her heart still believed. Her heart would always believe as long as it remained in her memory, and she would draw sustenance from it.

Where had he found the strength to open his heart to feeling?

If she had awakened to the world that he had, she didn’t think she could have handled it. She would have gone mad as, in fact, some of them had.

She was sorry to see his playfulness vanish. It was a side of him that she would never have expected. And, as handsome as he was to her at any time, he had never looked more handsome than when laughter lit his face. The urge to summon that carefree expression once more was strong, but she could think of nothing to do or say that might bring it to the surface once more.

Sighing, she finished her bath and climbed out to dry off. Reuel was so quick to follow her that she was left in no doubt that his trust in her was virtually nil, regardless of what had passed between them.

Up until that moment, she hadn’t cared. It had exasperated her, but she’d accepted that it was warranted. It hadn’t wounded her. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know why it did now.

Without a word, she extended her arms for the manacles when they’d finished dressing. He seemed disinclined to talk, and she wasn’t feeling particularly talkative herself.

She was certain she’d also lost all desire for sex, as well, until Reuel closed the door behind them, stripped, and proceeded to torment her until she was mindless with need and begging him to take her.

Apparently unconvinced that he’d thoroughly satisfied her, he made love to her twice more before they both dropped into the sleep of the truly sated and exhausted.

It was still dark when someone began banging on the door.

Reuel sat up abruptly. "What is it?"

"They’re coming."

"Is everything ready?"

"I think ... yes. But, Reuel, they slipped in. I don’t know how they managed it, but they’re practically on top of us and ... there’s about twice as many as we’d expected."

"Shit!"

Dalia sat up as Reuel leapt from the bed. "What is it?"

"The company." His face was grim as he lit the lamp and began snatching his cloths on.

"Oh my god! How? How could they have found us?"

Reuel turned and looked at her grimly.

A cold chill went through her. "I didn’t! Reuel, I swear to you, it wasn’t me! I cut my locator out and destroyed it. You’ve seen the scar!"

His lips tightened, but he shook his head. "You took one out."

She gaped at him. "But ... there was only one. I rememb...." A terrible fear seized her. She scrambled to her feet. "Please, Reuel. Believe me! I didn’t knowingly bring them down on us."

He shook her off. "It doesn’t matter now."

Dalia swallowed with an effort. "It matters to me."

His gaze flickered over her face. "I have to go."

The words were scarcely out of his mouth when an explosion of white light lit the world outside as if it were daylight. Almost instantly, an ear splitting concussion followed and directly behind that everything around them shuddered.