Page 66 of Dustwalker

“I found Tabitha.”

The words hung in the air, suspended like the ever-present haze in the sky.

Lara snapped upright. “What? Where is she? Is she okay? Did you talk?—”

He raised his hands, signaling for her to stop. She did, though the excitement didn’t fade from her expression. He ignored the electric tingle on his cheek.

“She’s dead, Lara.”

The color drained from her face, and she stared at him blankly. “That’s a fucking lie.”

“I found her on the way into town, with a dismantled synth.”

“You’re lying!” She jumped to her feet and struck him, sending a brief, dull pain through his left shoulder.

He rose and caught her arms before she could strike him again, taking both her wrists into one hand and clamping them together.

She struggled against his hold. “You’re a lying can of shit! All you fucking bots can go fuck each other and rust that way!”

“She had a scar,” he said gently. With a fingertip, he traced a line from the first knuckle of her left pinky to her thumb.

Lara frantically shook her head as she rasped, “No, no, no, no…” She gave a final, surprisingly strong tug on her arms, and then crumpled. “No!”

Her wail filled his audio receptors. She sagged against him, her sobs muffled by his chest.

Though he wasn’t sure why he did so, Ronin released her wrists and wrapped his arms around her. It wasn’t a tight embrace, but it was solid, and she leaned into him. Her body shook, and her teardrops traced wet paths down his bare chest and abdomen.

Didn’t she want to know how her sister had died? Hadn’t she wanted all the details?

No.

That information would only cause more pain. Tabitha was dead. The cause wasn’t important, the circumstances couldn’t alleviate the grief.

“I buried her.” He brushed his palm over her soft hair. “West of town. Away from…all this.”

Though she didn’t speak, her sobs quieted to soft whimpers. Her breathing was erratic; sharp, shuddering inhalations rocked her body with no predictable pattern.

“Now, Tabitha is free,” he continued gently. “Free from the struggles we all suffer through every day. She doesn’t have to worry about where her next meal will come from, or if she’ll have a roof over her head, or whether a cut will get infected. She can just…rest.”

Minutes passed as Lara cried. For a time, she made no sound at all, but her tears continued to fall. He registered each warm drop on his skin before it cooled. Through it all, she clung to him, and his hold on her didn’t relent.

When her breathing calmed, she pulled back and looked up at him. Her cheeks were wet, and the whites of her eyes were red, making her blue irises bright and vibrant. Her gaze searched his. It reminded him so much of that day in the rain, when she’d been lost, nearly broken, but not yet defeated.

Without looking away, she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his.

Ronin first registered the warmth of her lips, and then their softness. They yielded to the shape of his own, molding into a perfect fit.An electric pulse unlike anything he’d experienced spread across his face. This was not a malfunction, was not the result of an error in his coding.

His eyes widened as the sensation crackled over every electrode in his body. His attraction to her, his arousal, surged with new power, triggering the automated systems that pumped fluid into his phallus, which swelled in his pants.

Pulling back again, Lara glanced at his lips. Her pink tongue slipped out of her mouth for an instant before she kissed him once more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Lara closed her eyes, waiting for the wave of revulsion, for the surge of panic when she realized she was kissing a bot.

It didn’t come.

His lips were surprisingly warm and pliable. His arms tightened around her, caging her against his chest. Her heart raced, and her breaths were short, but it wasn’t because of fear. It was because of his nearness, his touch.