Hyperspeed Dreams by Anna Carven
Chapter Fifteen
“No,”Lodan growled, rising to his feet, the black tendrils of the controls swirling and whipping around him. How was this possible? The Sylth wasn’t a living, breathing entity. It was an artificial construct; a tool designed to serve their purposes.
But it was speaking to him in mind-voice.
It was rebelling against him.
And it had just tried to choke Tasha to death.
Why are you so bent on trying to kill her? She shouldn’t matter to you. She’s human…
To Lodan’s relief, Nythian was beside Tasha in a heartbeat, ripping the wayward black tendrils from her neck, before quickly working to remove the rest of the restraints from her body.
You dare try and take what is mine?
White-hot fury pounded through Lodan as he fought with the ship’s AI. It took all his skill to keep her on course as the Sylth railed against his control.
This was uncharted territory.
Their tech did not fail.
Ever.
And he did not lose control…
Ever.
But now he was on the verge of losing it to a crazed machine.
The only thing that pulled him back from the brink at that very moment was the familiar sound of his battle-brother’s voice as it crackled down the comm.
“Lodan, my brother, what in the Nine Hells are you doing? Get your shit together.”
“Just give me a siv…” Lodan sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth. “Problem’s a bit more complicated than I thought. Don’t leave Tasha’s side. The Sylth’s trying to kill her.”
Nythian let out a low whistle of surprise. “That’s a new one. And I thought we had it bad with Alexis’s Tharian problem and all. Just hurry up and do whatever it is you do, brother. I don’t like unpredictable.”
“I am trying,” Lodan hissed, lapsing into a coarse Flatedge dialect as he launched into a solid stream of Kordolian curse-words. “Leave the Sylth to me. You just worry about protecting her.”
“Of course, brother. I don’t want to get eviscerated by you or Alexis. I won’t let anything happen to your mate. Swear on the dead sun.”
Mate?
The ship lurched.
“She isn’t my mate,” Lodan growled. “I’ve just assumed responsibility for her because I am familiar with her circumstances.”
And I saw her first.
And the cursed ship under my control is trying to kill her…
More so than ever, he felt responsible for her fate.
So what if she’d struck him once or twice—and he’d allowed it?
So what if her utterly confounding mixture of killer-cold fierceness and desperation and raw vulnerability sang to him in a way that he’d never experienced before; in a way that terrified and excited him?
So what if he got a fucking hard-on every time she hit him; every time he caught a tendril of her distinctly feminine, human scent?
So what if he wanted to let her fight him; to see her take out all her pain and anger and fury on him until she was completely spent—and then turn on her and claim her powerful little body, and show her that not all control was terrible, because there was no way he could ever hurt her.
Not now.
Not after what he’d seen.
And if after all that, she still turned out to be their enemy, despite his best judgement…
There would be a problem.
A big fucking problem.
Nythian simply laughed—a wicked, knowing laugh. “You can’t be in control forever, Lodan. Sooner or later, something’s gotta give. It’s just the way it is.”