Page 40 of Neon Flux

But as I swept my aim around the bathroom, I saw what I already knew. She was gone. The tiny window in the shower was slightly ajar.

“Fuuuucckkkk!”

I swung around, ready to crash the butt of my pistol into the mirror above the sink, when I froze.

In hot pink lipstick, scrawled across the reflective surface, was a message inside a giant heart:

Until next time, doll.

The O was stamped with the imprint of her perfect, cock-sucking lips.

CHAPTER 12

EON

My head spun with Vector and Flux. I wobbled my way down the corridor to my apartment door, leaning heavily against the wall as I tried to press my palm into the biometric scanner outside. Nothing happened. I groaned and slammed my palm into it harder until I felt the circuits fire and the dissonant ping of it finally working.

I’d done the job. Both Cy and Maddox had been distracted during the infiltration, and with their devices disabled and in a different district, they wouldn’t be able to get to the site before Taos and her people could slip away.

I didn’t know they had intended to blow up the data center. Maybe they hadn’t? Maybe things had gotten out of control? How many people had gotten hurt because of this? My skin itched all over thinking about it. Well, that—and the Vector withdrawal.

It wasn’t supposed to be like that. I’d always planned on sleeping with him. That was just business, and I could have convinced myself that I didn’t enjoy it. Not after that. Not after he’d done something that I never did while working. Not whenhe’d looked up at me from between my legs with those electric eyes and made me come so hard I’d seen stars.

Get it together, Eon!It was just sex. That had literally been my job.Yeah, so I’d had a lot of really terrible sex.That sex hadn’t been terrible—it had been fucking fantastic. I’d tried so hard to deny myself, not give into the attraction. He was beautiful and filthy, but more than that, when he’d shocked me it had resonated deep within me, just like at the data center. A high I craved almost more than Vector. As the scar on my ribs ached, heat pooled between my legs again.

The door to my apartment finally slid open, and the florescent lights inside flicked on automatically. It was a shitty place, the whole lot built out of old shipping containers stacked whatever way they would stay put. I never stayed anywhere long enough to care about the ambience too much.

DITA slowly formed in the opening to my kitchen in her usual body-hugging black dress that matched her raven hair, curled around her face in a retro style that, if she had been corporeal, I was sure would be so stiff from hairspray it would be comical. In her digital format, however, it perfectly accented her strong, pale jaw and offset her cherry-red lips. On one particularly dark and lonely night I’d bought her this digital avatar, not knowing it was a particularly lascivious model. That was a lie—I had definitely known.

“Welcome home, E. How was work today?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, DITA.” I flopped down onto my threadbare couch and closed my eyes, leaning my head over the back.

Through my closed lids, I saw flashes of light as DITA moved around the couch near me. She flicked on some smooth jazz—her favorite, not mine—and I opened my eyes to her setting the lights to a sensual deep orange.

She moved in front of me and started undulating her body, toying with the straps of her dress. “Anything I can do to help?” she asked coyly.

I waved my hand. “Not tonight, DITA.”

“Oh, would you prefer this?” Light traced up her body as her appearance changed—swaths of soft femme curves replaced with a hard masculine body. God, I was so fucking blind. The male avatar looked just like Cy, but with dark hair and no tattoos. The same lean but strong body, the same angular and hard face.

“I saidno,DITA.” She flashed back to her usual self with an alarmed look and moved so she looked like she was sitting beside me on the couch.

She was complex code, perfectly calibrated to anticipate my needs. So different from the chaos I’d just experienced. DITA was designed to please; what I’d felt with Cy had no design at all. That’s what made it terrifying.

“What happened? Are you hurt?” she asked softly.

I brought my hands up to my face, scrubbing it roughly. My elbow passed through her, and her countenance flickered as I did.

“No, it’s not that. I just…I just thought I had this under control. I thought I had myself under control.”

Her hands flickered as she set them on my shoulders. “Did you fall off the wagon, E?”

“No!” I practically screamed it as her glowing form looked like fireworks in my eyes from the Vector. I didn’t have a choice. It didn’t count.

“Okay! You just told me to call Mercy if you—”

“I know! I know what I said, DITA.”