***

It was near evening by the time they had visited all of the coastal inlets. The watership was heading toward the nearest isle outer-lots. Rylie fiddled with the gel that covered her cut.

Kepler's sun was on its descent and the heat of the day began to fade into an evening chill. Her shoulders hunched into the towel draped around her.

She and Janet, along with the Cyborgs, had collected samples from every single lot. It made for an exhausting day. If her head hit a pillow, she would be out before her next breath.

She burrowed into the towel further as the night digressed into open cans of beer, seawater all over the ship's floor, bags of snacks and chips scattered about, and the descent into suffocating strain.

Every single nugget had produced a cloudy gem. Every one they had collected today. They had not encountered one large group of swimmers nor had they come any closer to a conclusion to what may be happening.

The men had grown quieter as the day went on, but Janet had gotten more boisterous to make up for it, leaving a trail of silence behind her wherever she went. Rylie was hanging onto the thread of her last nerve.

Her eyes lifted to watch Janet brush out her hair and talk to Da. She sat across from them, not devoting her full attention to either.

Rylie was almost impressed with the Cyborgs for not coming to blows over Janet. It had happened in the past with men, in less time and with far less flirtation.

Her hand tingled. She bit the inside of her cheek and ignored it. She’d been on edge ever since this morning.

“This is our last stop.”

There was a pause before anyone responded.

“Is there any reason for us to check this one? Or do you think this will be different from the rest?” Zeph groused. The tension was thick enough to cut through.

Rylie was far too tired for it.

“You can stay here while Netto and I check it then,” Janet teased.

She's playing with fire. Just stop, Janet, please stop.

Netto hadn't spoken to her since this morning. Not since he had licked and sucked on her hand.

Since he had trapped her into a corner and blocked out the overhead light. She still felt his mouth on her palm, pulling at her skin, sending shockwaves straight through her nerves. Her skin broke out in goosebumps just at the thought of it.

But it died as her sister got up and stretched, thrusting out her chest toward their guests, and cracked her back.

Zeph stood up, “I'll go.”

Janet smiled as Zeph followed on her heels and into the water.

“Anyone hungry?” Da asked.

“No.”

Netto shook his head. He hadn't eaten once since he arrived.

“We'll turn in after this then.”

“Shouldn't we head back?” Netto asked.

Rylie refused to look at him; her hand tingled every time his mouth moved. “It's dangerous traveling after dark. We wouldn't make it back before then.”

It didn't make any sense to her. Whenever a new man came into their lives and Rylie thought she could make a connection with him, Janet swooped in and took him away. Was it her? Was it because Janet was so open and friendly while Rylie kept to herself? Was she so unapproachable? Was she not...attractive enough?

Why does he affect me? Why did he follow me? When she looked back at him, he was watching her, an unreadable expression in his eyes. Rylie shivered and the hair on the back of her neck rose. She pulled the towel around her tighter. They had spent an entire day within each other’s vicinity and it had only made the unease worse...

“Netto and I are different than most Cyborgs,” Zeph took the nugget from her sister and cracked it open. “We’re better in bed.”

Janet laughed. “So you’re lazy? Would’ve never guessed.” She dug her hands through the contents of the rocky shell she held and pulled out the stone. Rylie attributed her blush to the rising sun. “Or is that your ability? Kill the aliens by getting them into bed?”

Zeph shrugged. “If that were so, the war would’ve ended decades before it did.”

Rylie handed him another nugget while Janet cleaned and collected the stones. The edges were rough but after years of handling them, her hands had sealed over with callouses and tough skin. She reached below the water and ripped another one from the surface.

“Is that so? I wonder what Netto’s teeth do to a girl beneath the sheets. I’d imagine bedding him would be...intriguing. Maybe even messy if you know what I mean.”

“If you want biting during your bedplay, sweetheart, you need to look no further.”

Rylie kept her mouth shut and palmed the nugget. She wasn’t aware of the cut until a plume of red spread out through the water. She didn’t want to hear what her sister was saying, especially when it came to things Rylie knew nothing about. Despite being the eldest child, she knew little when it came to intimate relations and it had always bothered her.

How could she sleep with someone when they had already been with her sister? Her family thought her asexual and she never corrected that notion, but now a stranger—a frighteningly handsome one—had looked at her. Her. And not her sister. She was curious and she hated herself for it.

“Why is it dangerous?” Netto asked. Heat rose to her cheeks as she realized she had been staring at him. Her eyes roved over his body quickly before she looked away and shifted her gaze toward her da, who was absorbed with the ship’s controls.

“The fog,” she said, clearing her throat. “It makes it impossible to see at night and it descends every night. It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, the nightly fog is a constant.” Rylie glanced back at him only to encounter his heavy stare. It made her uneasy, even more so since she had been thinking about sex.

As if, maybe, he knew her thoughts. Her toes clenched. As if he could see right through her. A thought weeded its way into her head. I wish I was Janet.

“Don’t you have a GPS?”

Netto turned to face her and the weight of his intimidation blanketed her. She didn’t want to look at him but couldn’t help it. It doesn’t help that he’s half naked. And had been since that morning, since he cornered her and she got a full frontal view of his chest.

Rylie counted six. Six abdominal muscles—toned and sculpted beyond any she had seen before. She could probably get her fingertip to the first knuckle into the grooves carved between them. No one in the settlement had a body remotely like Netto’s. Large, packed, molded into a perfectly made sea stone, and taller than she thought humanly possible. Zeph matched him in build but not height nor in looks. Where his devilish partner was exotically handsome with short wavy hair the color of amber, Netto was...Rylie swallowed...he was heroic. Heroic.

Her mouth dried up as she rubbed the tingling from her hand again. “It’s easy to get turned around. Even with the tech.”

Netto’s brow furrowed and his features hardened. “That’s not possible.” His teeth glinted in the waning light.

“It’s not reliable. We use the sun and oceanic mapping to find our way, but the mapping gets skewed at night,” Rylie said.

“Underwater currents. No tides, no moon. No stars in the fog to follow at night. It messes with a man’s head and many have found themselves lost the next morning. We generally don’t sail after dark unless it’s an emergency,” Da said off to the side.

Rylie watched the setting sun and the incoming fog. Already there was a milky haze building around them.

“You’re stuck with us tonight,” she murmured more as a reminder to herself and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. The Cyborgs’ bunks were a wall away and she had a terrible feeling that her sister was going to want to switch rooms.

She rubbed her cheek against the towel, hoping the heat in her cheeks could be erased.

Her eyes flickered back to Netto as he stood and approached her. Rylie stiffened when he took the seat next to hers. Stop thinking about him. Stop conjuring him up. Stop. She wanted to scream at her thoughts.

First, he invaded her thoughts; now, he invaded her space.

He’s too close, too near. She desperately wanted to jump into the water and swim away. Instead, they sat in awkward silence until he put his hand out.

She looked at it, then at him, only to look back at it again. Rylie relented and placed her damaged hand, palm side up, in his.

Her hand was small in comparison. Golden against his blue. Hers was rough, while his was smooth.

Netto lifted it and it took every ounce of her willpower to not shy away. Is he going to mouth it again? Her eyes widened as she prepared herself for the worst. But he didn’t, and it stopped in front of his eyes.

She exhaled. It wasn’t just her hand that tickled anymore. The rest of her was now affected and she couldn’t help but take in his intense expression, the steadiness of his strong jaw, or that his eyes dulled to a pasty dilated grey as he studied her.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“It tingles.” Rylie closed her eyes. Really? “It itches, I mean.”

“Hmm...”

He lifted her hand closer to his face. Oh god, he’s really going to do it again. “Don’t,” she stammered but all he did was sniff it. Her mouth hung open as her heart pounded.

“It’s healing,” Netto said, sniffing it again.

It was too late. An image flashed before her eyes of his mouth wide open, teeth bared as he leaned into her, slowly biting off her fingers, up to her knuckles, until her hand was devoured. His heat crashed over her, it put her on edge, and she couldn’t tell if it was from apprehension or from something else.

Fear? No, she felt safe regardless of her thoughts. Confusion? Maybe. Desire?

Need?

“Your serum is old.”

Rylie took her hand back as if he burned her. “It’s working though.”

“Not well. Remain here,” Netto ordered. He left her, ducking and entering the ship. Rylie didn’t know if she stayed because he had demanded it of her or if it had to do with the flush she was suffocating under. She didn’t know what to do about her attraction to the Cyborg.

Janet had always been forthright and blunt when it came to sharing her experiences with her.

“I wonder what Netto’s teeth do to a girl beneath the sheets.”

Netto was back a minute later with a wet rag and a small aerosol can and took his place back beside her. Rylie gave him her hand without hesitation. He meticulously cleaned off the old serum and replaced it with the spray version. A puff of soothing cold collected over her coarse skin and eased the discomfort. She was trapped as he massaged the serum into her callouses, his fingers velvet and warm over the cold salve. She relaxed back into the seat and rested her eyes.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had been touched in such a way. There was affection in her family but nothing so hot and cold as what this Cyborg gave her. The stress of the last several days seeped out of her and was buried under the noise of the spume against the side of the ship.

“I could get used to this,” she said under her breath. Rylie opened her eyes to his steely ones watching her. “You’re right.”

“About?”

“Our serum being old.” She smiled.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” he said without returning the smile. “It won’t happen again.”

“What,” she said slowly, “did happen this morning?”

“I lost control.” Bitterness laced his voice. She shook her head.

“You cornered me and sucked on my scrape. That’s what happens when you lose control?” She knew she should let the subject drop but her curiosity ruled out. And she was afraid he would stop touching her if the conversation died between them. She didn’t want it to stop.

It made her wonder if Janet had it right all this time. What had she been missing? Getting in bed with a man who had already been with my sister. Rylie reminded herself bitterly.

“I’m...” Netto began.

“Different? Zeph mentioned to us that you were but that’s obvious,” she teased. “Your skin gives you away.” She poked his arm lightly.

And shut her mouth when he still didn’t smile back.

“Yes. Different.”

Tension perforated the space between them. I can’t flirt. I’m horrible at it. Her stomach dropped as the silence grew increasingly more awkward. I offended him. “Are you upset...? With me?”

Netto stopped massaging her hand but didn’t let it go.

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“You don’t say much.” She moved to pull away but he held her firm, stopping her. Rylie lifted her eyes back to his and found herself pinned beneath his gaze once again.

“People don’t like my teeth.”

She frowned, glancing at his lips. Although closed from seeing his abnormality, she knew what his teeth looked like. They made him look perverse. He still looked demonic and uncanny, and his teeth did remind her of some of the dead sea monsters that would occasionally wash up on shore. But the more they talked, the less she noticed them.

His teeth also made him dangerously attractive—different—like Zeph had said. There was an appeal to their pointed edges, which were shaped in perfect symmetry when he spoke. They emphasized his created nature and she wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

“I like them.”

“Crap!” Zeph's voice intruded on their conversation. Janet appeared over the side of the boat, her brows furrowed and her movements jerky, a telltale sign of her internal fire about to burst forth.

Her sister stomped to the seat opposite her and sat down, leaving a trail of water all over the floor and upholstery. Rylie pulled the towel from around her shoulders and handed it to her sister.

“Everything we've seen today has been complete shit!” Zeph raged, right behind Janet, who blatantly rolled her eyes. “Montihan, you better have stones in reserve or I swear to hellspace that the EPED will confiscate your land, your holdings, everything it possibly can to not take a loss. You’re a fucking liar.”

Netto stood up. Rylie jerked back from the sudden vehemence he exuded. His muscles bulged further out, bulking him into an even larger predator, and an even bigger force to be reckoned with. She moved away, putting as much distance as possible between her and the two men who looked as if they were about to kill each other.

She was awed and breathless, uneasy and aware.

Netto blocked Zeph's path to the rest of the ship.

“Get the fuck out of my way, Shark. We need to get back to the ship.”

“Calm,” Netto's voice was low but thunderous, “down.”

“They're liars,” Zeph spat, his eyes flared and smoked as he looked at Janet. Her sister sat stiffly. “Where're the crops you promised us?” he whispered, his eyes never leaving his target. His hand opened to show a group of dark grey stones that he pushed against Netto's chest.

“Zeph,” Netto warned.

Rylie glanced at Da, who was standing at the helm, a laser rifle in his grip. Netto caught the stones before they fell and looked at them. No one said a word as he turned them over in his palm.

“Our livelihood is threatened,” Da said, calm as day. “You'll get your end after we get ours.”

“Are you so sure, old man? Because as far as I know, the lots in the Western hemisphere are doing fine.”

“With prices to match.”

Da raised his gun as Zeph turned toward him. Netto placed the stones with the others they had collected.

“You're already here,” Rylie said, not being able to hold her tongue any longer

“Yes. We are,” Zeph looked at her. His eyes didn't smolder her like Netto's. “What are you going to do about it?” The Cyborg pushed past Netto and advanced on her.

Chaos erupted and Janet screamed. A gunshot went off and water cascaded around them as Netto lifted Zeph and threw him into the ocean, following in after him.

It took her a moment to break from the shock and her sister rushing to the side before she was leaning over the edge too. The water swirled and foam floated toward the surface as she looked for the Cyborgs.

“Where are they?”

“They went under,” Janet rushed out. “Did you see that? He lifted him straight into the air, a man filled with metal and taller than god...right over his head!”

She had seen it, but she hadn't registered it. What she did see now was Da with the rifle raised and pointed over the side, waiting for a victim to emerge.

Had Netto been shot? “Who'd you shoot!?” Rylie turned to him. “Who did you shoot?” she asked again.

“He advanced on you, Buggy. We protect our own.” His voice was so matter-of-fact it derailed her. “A bullet won’t kill him, only hinder him.”

She blanched.

“He shot Zeph. Look!”

Farther out, a flash of metal appeared out of the water. Right on the edge of a wall of mist. Da lowered the gun as they watched the Cyborgs resurface and tear each other up. A flash of teeth and a garbled taunt was sounded before they dipped back under the surface.

Janet leaned forward over the rail, her face devoid of color. Long minutes passed while nothing happened, and Rylie couldn’t stop her heart from wanting to explode within her chest. They were all waiting for something, anything to happen, but nothing did.

They were gone.

The sun had disappeared below the horizon and the remaining light cast an ashen glow over the area, surrounding them in a gauzy veil that couldn’t be ripped off. No one spoke and the Cyborgs had yet to reappear. Bubbles emerged now and again but Rylie knew they could be from anything.

What if they don’t come back? Will the EPED think we killed them? Her fingers bruisingly gripped the railing. Will I ever see him again? She pictured a blue-grey corpse, torn apart by teeth and hungry fish washed up onto the shore. Metal pieces and wiring was torn from the mass, left in a tangled mess in the sand.

Her hands strained on the ledge. Janet was just as tense next to her.

“Where are they?” Janet asked. Dead. Gone. Her sister’s question went unanswered as she screamed into the dusk.

“Netto!” A splash somewhere in the thick of the mist sailed through the air. She heard Da trigger the safety back on his gun.

“We need to up the shields.”

“You can’t be serious! We need to go after—”

“We don’t. They’re Cyborgs. They can take care of themselves,” he quipped.

“We can’t just leave them. This is all your fault!” Janet's voice rose in anger, turning away from the water. “We shouldn’t have lied to them. I’m going in.”

Janet moved to release one of the drop pods.

Rylie kept her gaze on the last bit of ocean that was visible, scanning anything and everything for movement. She found a water-light nearby and dropped it over the side as a precautionary beacon. She knew it wouldn’t do much but it was at least something.

She listened as her family continued to argue. “They’ll kill each other!”

“They won’t.”

“How do you know? How can you know?” Janet demanded, prepping the drop-pod.

“They don't turn on each other. They're men but men with strong loyal, coded morals. I've seen it in battle, I've killed by their sides. They won't kill each other over such a minor disagreement, only if the act committed by one of them defies their coding, defies the logic, intelligence, and strict behavioral conduct within themselves. The scientists didn't want their super soldiers offing each other from something as primal as their alpha nature, and they didn't want them to turn on their creators, regardless of their hatred toward them. They were created to kill Trentians, to win a war that spanned the galaxy, and to do more than any normal man can.” He sighed. “They won't kill each other. All we can do is let them duke it out.”

Rylie chewed on the inside of her cheek and heard the splash of one of the pods being released. She turned toward Janet who was preparing to enter it.

No one stopped her as she stepped into the top. “Even if they don’t, I'm going in. I goaded Zeph and I won't feel responsible for his behavior, nor will I let him go back to his ship. I don’t want to inherit a business under the thumb of the government.”

“Stay within the watership’s radar,” Da said. “Don't make your sister and I come after you after nightfall because you went too far.”

“Be careful,” Rylie said.

Janet nodded. She was beautiful when she was angry. Her sister was beautiful all the time. She was inside the pod and gone the next moment. Rylie turned back toward the ocean but was met with nothing but darkness. Her hands lifted up as the shield ascended from the railing.

It cocooned the ship within a matter of seconds. The sound of the water was gone. She sat down and gritted her teeth. “What now?”

“We wait until morning then head back to the settlement.”

“And the Cyborgs?”

“If they don't return, they'll meet us there.”

“How do you know? We're half a day out at sea,” she laughed without humor. “They have no ship. They don't even have their weapons, their armor.”

He ran a hand over his face, his countenance more tired than she had ever seen it before. She suddenly worried over him as she took in his haggard state. “Are you okay?” Rylie went to him and took his hand.

He waved her away. “I'm fine.”

“Da...”

He stood up fast and turned away. “They're shifters, water shifters,” he said. Rylie knew he was changing the subject. It wasn't like him to leave a question unaddressed but it also wasn't like him to look wrung out.

He spoke as he headed for the interior. “Netto is a shark, a big one at that. Zeph, I don't know, I haven't figured him out. They're different, the water is their home.” He stopped at the passageway. “I'm going to turn in.” He glanced at the darkness. “I've never been able to stomach the nights at sea. You'll see, come morning, everything will be back to normal.” He turned and left her.

And for the first time that day, she was alone. Completely, utterly, heavily alone. Rylie went back to her seat and sat sentinel. She didn’t welcome the silence.

If the morning will be normal, I'm going to watch that happen. She didn't think she could sleep knowing that her sister was out there, or that Netto could be hurt.

It was a revelation, a hard one to swallow.

She pulled her towel back around her shoulders and settled in. She rubbed her hand but found it no longer tingled, was no longer covered in serum, and that her skin was healed.