Raven Willow-Wood Read online

  THE BODYGUARD

  By

  Raven Willow-Wood

  © copyright by Raven Willow-Wood, August 2010

  Cover Art by Alex DeShanks, August 2010

  ISBN 978-1-60394-453-3

  New Concepts Publishing

  Lake Park, GA 31636

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s

  imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or

  events is merely coincidence.

  Chapter One

  2060

  “Goddammit, Zeno, I'm not a child! Stop treating me like one!” Brooke Aldrea yelled furiously.

  Perhaps it was true that the more she grieved, the more volatile and unable to control her emotions she became. Perhaps she was giving up. Brooke couldn't be sure, but no matter how hard she tried, she sank deeper and deeper into the perilous listlessness that assailed her. Either way, though, she was a grown woman, for God's sake!

  If she wanted to be listless, then it was her own damned prerogative!

  Only Zeno managed to break her moods, usually in this way, by prodding and pushing at her until she screamed at him in exasperation. He was what pushed her to act like this. Couldn't he see that?

  “If you behave like a child, then I can't treat you in any other way, can I?”

  The Cyborg's voice was perfectly calm, logical, and more infuriating because of that.

  When there was such a sharp contrast between their moods it always annoyed her. Zeno was always so fucking calm, she thought furiously. There were times when she longed to kick him and shower him with punches and hard blows. But, what was the point? She'd have broken fingers, hands, wrists, and toes for her trouble.

  She wouldn’t get all of that from Zeno retaliating, no, never that, but from his body's frame work which was crafted from ultranium. That damned metal was nearly impossible for a human to damage. Hitting it with all her might, she’d only be hurting herself. It was something she'd learned quickly over the years she’d spent in his company. It didn't make the temptation to try and beat him senseless any less, though.

  She longed to strike out at him like a child in the throes of a temper tantrum, but at the same time, she longed for him to take her into his arms and kiss her senseless, longed for him to drag her from this dispassionate funk that had overtaken her, the way only he could.

  How he managed to inspire such contradicting emotions in her, she would never know, but she'd long since stopped analyzing them and was merely thankful for him, even if he did piss her off most of the time!

  “If I wanted to eat something, then I would eat something. I'm not hungry,” she spat impatiently, angrily pushing away the plate he'd set before her.

  “You're diminishing before my eyes, Brooke. Food is sparse. You know how hard it is to find! You have to eat what you can when you can! There is no choice. You have to eat. You can't afford to lose any more weight!”

  “I know all that!” she said, waving a hand at him in frustration, “but if I eat, I know I'll throw up. Is that what you want? Do you want me to be even weaker? My stomach just can’t take it right now, Zeno. I know my own fucking body!”

  “Tough,” he murmured succinctly. “As usual, you're exaggerating! You need to eat to gain strength. We need to start training again, Brooke. You have to realize how perilous the situation you're in is. The little protection your father's position once gave us is now gone. It's up to both of us to keep you strong and ready for any eventuality.”

  As ire threatened to blind her, she took a hissing breath and tried to attain an ounce of Zeno's calm because he was right, and, she, dammit, was wrong.

  “I promise, I will eat later, just not right this second. I can't. Please, don't talk about dad, I c-can't stand it. You know I can't!” she begged, a note of pleading entering her voice.

  Despite himself, because of the importance behind his argument, Zeno wasn't immune to that not of pleading. “You know I push you because I care, don't you, Brooke?” he asked, his voice ever collected.

  To her ears, the question was flat and unemotional. He could have been telling his dog that he cared for it. Sighing wearily, she tried not to feel hurt, even though it was damned hard not to be. “I know,” she mumbled.

  “It's imperative that we restart your training. The Cyborgs are slowly but systematically destroying the Robots. The Cyborgs are going to win. It's only a matter of time before they obtain victory. You know how dangerous the Cyborgs can be for human women.”

  “I do,” she said tiredly, “but if they take me, they take me. There's nothing I can do about it. No amount of training is going to enable me to stop them from abducting me.”

  A long slow hiss escaped the Cyborg's mouth. It was the first sign that he was feeling less than the calm and cool image he most often projected. Just as he could rile up turbulent emotions in her, she was able to do the same to him. “You know I hate it when you talk like that. Stop being so defeatist, for fuck's sake.”

  Brooke lifted wet eyes to Zeno's human-like metallic face. “I can't help it, Zeno. It all seems so useless. There's no point to any of this that I can see. I might as well just give myself to one of them. It would be easier and then you could join your brethren...,” she whispered.

  “Dammit, Brooke, how many times do I have to tell you? I have no affiliation with the Cyborgs. I may be one, but I'm not a damned mercenary! I don't want to fight in their pointless war. Going on is not useless. You have me, and I will not lose you! Do you hear me?”

  “Yes.” She gulped. When she next spoke her voice was a little raw with emotion. “Zeno, I need you so badly. What will become of me if you leave me?”

  “That's never going to happen,” he murmured before treading carefully towards her. In this state, Brooke was always volatile and needed to be handled tenderly. He knew that and softened his words accordingly. “Come here.” There was no use in hurling angry words at her when she was in this condition. She just wasn't thinking clearly, and he knew that.

  She flung herself freely into his arms and shuddered as she received comfort from the Cyborg who, to all intents and purposes, should be considered her enemy. But she couldn't think about him that way. How could she? He was her only comfort, the only one she could turn to, the only one she wanted to turn to. If her parents had been alive, then she would have been content, but their deaths had shown her the uselessness of the fight against the Cyborgs who were so much stronger than the human race.

  The depth of her feelings for him would forever need to be denied to the outside world and to Zeno himself. Of course, he knew she cared about him. They'd been together for far too long for affection and trust not to grow between them, but he had no idea that she loved him. Hell, until tonight she’d had no idea that she loved him the way a woman loves a man. She wasn’t even sure what had happened, just what it was that had opened her eyes. She’d have to eventually come to terms with how deeply she felt for him and the knowledge that he would never feel the same. It would be a necessity, but not admitting the love she felt for him to herself would drive her crazy. And being nearly off the deep end already, it was something she just couldn't afford!

  Unrequited love was a bitch, but at least she had him by her side all day, every day. At least he was here with her and cared something for her, even if it was only duty. His presence took some of the pain away and, God, was there ever pain! She longed to tell him of how she felt and knew her feelings would be treated with care and consideration, even though he didn’t reciprocate them. But she couldn't stand the thought of him knowing and not feeling the same way about her. So instead of telling him what she’d realized, she hid it f
rom him and reveled in the time they spent together, for it was all she could have and she’d just have to appreciate it for what it was.

  Only Zeno could drag her out of her misery, and it was beginning to frighten her how much she needed him, how dependent she was upon him for her basic needs, emotionally, psychologically, how desperately she wanted to rely on him for her physical needs.

  Since the death of her parents a year before, he'd become her everything, and, without him, she was dead. At any moment, he could switch loyalty, make the decision to stop protecting her and return to the USA's Cyborg Base to fight with his brethren against the Robots, just as Hedra, her parent's guard had. He said he cared nothing for the wars between his own kind and the Robots, but that could change at any time. He could easily abandon her to her fate as Hedra had. Her parents were now dead because of that fact.

  She felt like Zeno’s human half cared for her, but what happened if his electronic half began to chafe at the need to defend one weak and fragile female? What if it longed to take its rightful place in the war? She lived on the knife edge every day and that was making her waste away into nothing. Rather than it pushing her to enjoy and relish every moment she had with him, it made her mope and cling to him, and she hated herself for it.

  Perhaps she would never lose him. Maybe fate would have mercy on her and keep them together for as long as she lived. Never overly religious, she found herself praying at odd times that Zeno would remain by her side forever. Silly, perhaps, but at times it eased her foolish mind.

  Many women they’d encountered through the years had been shocked by Zeno's appearance which depicted what he was and what he at one time had been, a man, who for whatever reason, had at one point in his existence allowed himself to be enhanced with engineering which completely covered his body in ultranium. She alone knew that Zeno had once been a human soldier in the twenties. A bomb had partially blown up in his face and only the experimental enhancements at the time had enabled him to survive. The bomb had blasted the left side of his body, damaging his face but most of the other side had been shielded from injury. On his left side he'd lost an arm, shoulder, and pectoral muscle, plus countless internal organs. His bottom half hadn't been touched. All these lost and damaged parts had been replaced beneath his ultranium exterior with electrical engineering and augmentations that had been added to his remaining limbs to improve his intrinsic physical capabilities, increasing his strength, stealth, and speed tenfold.

  She didn't understand how he worked, how all the bits functioned and turned him into a guard of outstanding competence, but then, she didn't really care. He was Zeno. Nothing more. Nothing less. He’d had a justifiable reason for taking the engineering augmentations. Later, others had chosen them for more mercenary reasons, but not her Zeno. She relished all of him and celebrated him for what he was . . . her Cyborg. She felt undeniable pride in what and who he was. Rather than being appalled by it, she loved him, faults and bolts and all.

  She supposed that he was astonishing to the eye at first, with the look of a beautiful silver man. She sighed as she cupped his head, feeling the disturbing yet erotic sensation of his ultranium skin. But having known him since adolescence and having grown accustomed his unique appearance, she'd grown blind to the fact that the complete exterior of his body was metal. No, she truly appreciated and loved Zeno for what he was. It didn't matter that he was half man and half science. He was her Cyborg and that was all that mattered to her.

  “I ...,” she started then stopped, longing to tell him of her love for him, but retreating from the admission at the last second. Instead, she raised a hand and toyed with the right side of his head. She felt a small shudder rack through his frame and smiled. She knew how much he enjoyed being touched, even if it wasn’t for the same reasons she enjoyed touching him.

  “Stop acting like I’m going to leave you, Brooke. Don't you know I need you?” he whispered hoarsely into the silence.

  “You do?” she whispered in wonder.

  Having never realized that he needed anyone or anything, it came as a pleasurable surprise to hear those words pass his lips.

  “Of course,” he murmured impatiently, raising his head to frown down at her. “I was purchased to guard you, Brooke.” Seeing the hurt in her eyes at his callous reply, a muscle in his jaw ticked, the only outward sign of his frustration. “You know I didn't mean it like that. I meant that you’re well-being is important me. But I’m not supposed to feel. I'm just supposed to be your bodyguard.”

  “I know that! How stupid do you think I am?”

  “Stop pushing for a fight,” he murmured huskily. Turning his head to the side he kissed her gently on the forehead.

  It was something he’d done a thousand times, but this time it was different. It was different because she was different. She’d had an awakening. Her eyes had been opened. It was as if she was looking through new eyes. And the kiss that had long comforted her, stirred altogether new and exciting feelings deep within her.

  “You know what I mean. What we have... this... it's all about us, nothing else,” he continued when he felt her relax a little against him.

  “You know I need you, too. You know that, Zeno, don't you?” Her voice was hesitant, but there was conviction behind it.

  The sincerity in her voice told him the remark wasn't empty words devoid of sentiment. “I know. That's why I push and fight you. You've got to start living again!”

  “It's hard, Zeno. I have you, and I need you so badly, but I needed them, as well. To lose my parents .... I just can't handle having lost them. A huge part of my life has disappeared, and I just can't seem to regroup.”

  Lowering his head, Zeno rested it against her chest. He sighed heavily, his warm breath teasing now very aware peaks. “Don't you think I know that?”

  Without waiting for a reply, because there wasn't really a satisfactory one she could give him, he straightened to his full height, clutching her to his chest as he got up. Lifting her legs into his arms, he carried her to the small bedroom they shared in the dingy and broken down flat.

  Perching himself on the edge of the bed, he cradled her in his embrace as he settled them down against the mattress. He began to stroke her hair soothingly and was rewarded with a small shiver of reaction as she began to relax within his hold.

  Her father had often told her stories about the Millennium. Indeed she could hear his voice in her mind as he whispered his tales about the past, the happiness of societies who had begun to create a technological era and were improving the lives of the planet's billions with every invention made. According to him, every small advance had seemed like another rung of the ladder had been taken, leading them onwards to a technologically-based and improved society.

  She'd heard the tales of the Earth's population's pleasure as every decade passed and more advances had occurred. He’d told her these stories with a soft but sad smile on his face as he recalled how the happiness of that time had slowly deteriorated and become the broken civilization in which his daughter had been born and raised.

  She couldn't remember the First Technological Wars, had been far too young to recall those horrible times and for that she was thankful. Her mother's and father's eyes had been haunted by the sights they'd seen, her parents often suffering with nightmares and bouts of manic depression, all symptoms of their struggle to battle with the post traumatic stress that threatened to sink them.

  She had become accustomed to the bouts of hysteria that had assailed her parents at times. Now they were both lost to her, and she missed them dearly, actually missed the manifestations of their illness, because at least they had been there. She knew how distraught the First Tech War had made the surviving human populations. They'd witnessed new methods of death and misery at the Cyborg's and Robot's hands who’d killed and tortured in hideous new ways.

  The Second Technological War had taken its toll on Earth's weakening residents. With so few humans remaining, it was a daily struggle for survival, and it was only
Zeno, her guard, that had kept her going, now, more than ever, in more ways than one. His friendship and support helped heal her heart. With him by her side, she hadn't faded away into the apathy that threatened to drag her down. His strength and ability kept her alive.

  After the First Tech War and the crumbling of civilization as they'd known it, her father had insisted upon purchasing two hideously expensive Cyborgs to guard his young family. One of the few remaining human senators in Government, he'd had the funds and the contacts to make the purchase, where millions of others hadn't been able to do so. Those two guards had enabled them to survive the intermittent period between the wars.

  The Cyborgs and Robots, whose creation had been so celebrated, had brought about the collapse of civilization. Where the average member of society had seen them as toys and servants, the government had seen them as soldiers and had programmed them accordingly. The creation of those first soldiers had been the harbinger of war and a broken world. With millions programmed to kill indiscriminately, battle had soon commenced after the creations had grown tired of being ordered by human weaklings, and man had ultimately lost. Once over-crowded and densely populated, Earth became almost barren of man. Robots and Cyborgs ruled, allowing the remaining homo sapiens to live, but bitterly and harshly. Her father's position in government had at first placed him in danger, but eventually, his status and experience had been called upon by the ruling Cyborgs and Robots.

  Then, twenty years after the first war, battle had been declared between the two leaders of the Robots and the Cyborgs. Once having worked together to dominate and conquer man, the leaders had grown greedy and wanted to rule all. Battling each other for supremacy had cost countless human lives and her parents had been but two on the list of casualties.

  Humans were now treated with both suspicion and with interest. The Cyborgs, who were part man, had more use for their weaker counterparts. They could fuck them and play with them. So, to them, humans were of use and were actively sought out. Slave markets had been set up for the richer and more powerful Cyborgs to purchase whatever took their fancy. For Robots, who could never comprehend how a human's mind worked, they were a danger and, so, were destroyed. The survival rate was higher if taken captive by a Cyborg, but a sad future lay ahead of the abductee.