The Exchange Part 1 (7 page)

Chaos surrounds me. Flames. Upturned cars left and right. People shoving at each other,
fleeing in all directions.

There are dead bodies littered on the floor, all around our upturned vehicle.

All of them are dressed in black, tactical gear.

Most of them are in pieces.

One man's sightless eyes stare up at me. He's missing an arm, sliced clean through
from what I can tell. He's holding a
katana
in his other hand.

A gasp has my head turning sharply. That's when I see her.
Sapphire.
The man's other
katana
is in her hand.

More dead bodies are scattered at her feet. The man who'd come at her staggers backward,
pale-faced as he tries to stem the blood gushing out his chest. He falls to his knees,
dazed eyes staring up at Sapphire. Blood begins to pool beneath his knees.

I’m frozen to the spot, watching as Sapphire approaches the man. There’s blood splattered
all over her, but none of it seems to be hers. Behind her is nothing but mayhem—debris
from the explosion, broken awning signs sending sparks flying into the air as they
die out.

Most of the cars behind her are on fire. Flames lick at the sky, their glow highlighting
her.

“
Ms
. Heaton. You just made a grave mistake. We’ll consider this a declaration of war,”
the man wheezes, his hands pressed to his chest.

Futile. The wound is too deep, the blood loss so severe. He’ll be dead in a few minutes.

I watch Sapphire walk up to him, the
katana
swinging back and forth lazily with each step. I can’t see her face; it’s lost behind
all that hair. “War? Is that so?” she asks the man, tilting her head to one side.

“We’ll—” A cough racks the man, and a gush of blood shoots out of his mouth to join
the puddle beneath him. “We’ll kill everyone you love if you don’t come willingly,
Ms
. Heaton.”

Sapphire stops before him. “Now, see, that’s a problem. Because I can’t go where you’re
going. I plan to stay very much alive. Oh, and one more thing.” The
katana
whistles through the air, a black blur that slices through the man’s arm.

He doesn’t even have time to scream. One slice. Two. Three.

The final slice takes his head clean off his body.

Body parts are still raining down in a flurry of blood at Sapphire’s feet, when four
breathless words carry across the distance.

“My name… is… Sapphire.”

The killer in me reacts instantly. It’s brutal, hissing. Scratching at every civilized
lock I’ve put in place to keep it tamed.

It wants her. Wants to own her. Bow before her for being a fighter—for taking down
every bastard that dared try to hurt her.

I’m a dazed, confused mess. Who it this killer, and how the hell does she know how
to fight like that?

It’s enough to leave me awestruck. I’ve fought alongside, and worked with, many dangerous,
trained-to-kill females, but Sapphire just took my fucking breath away.

Then I see him.
Dr.
Oshoro
.
Dressed in the same tactical gear as the others had been.

He’s coming up behind Sapphire, a small tranq-gun aimed at her back.

My vision goes black.

Rage explodes inside me, the force of it flinging me off the ground. I don’t remember
running at him, but as soon as I wrap my fingers around his neck, I revel in it.

Circulation is cut off. The tranq-gun drops to the pavement. His beady eyes bulge
out of his head as his skin turns bright red.

The cold calculation that settles over my mind is familiar. Almost soothing. His actions
have enraged me, but the outcome pacifies me somewhat.

He’s going to die, right here, right now, for threatening what’s mine.

His eyes widen as I raise my fist. It goes right through his face like a knife cutting
through butter—bone, skin, and tissue give way. A piece of his brain falls out the
back of his head. A group of people running by scream and run faster.

He’s dead. Just like that. Gone.

It’s still not enough.

In a fury, I pull my fist out of the hole I’ve created in his head and hit him again.
I hear the wet crunch of another part breaking. My mind replays the image of him aiming
that fucking gun at Sapphire’s back.

Another hit, another break. What was once his head now lays in pieces on the street.
The body falls out of my grasp. Growling, I follow it down, raining blow after blow
until all that’s left is a body with no head or neck.

My fury still doesn’t abate.

“Deimos!”

I jerk at the sound of Sapphire’s voice.

Small hands grab my shoulders and yank me back. I’m lifted off the ground with the
movement. All two-hundred, fifteen pounds of me.

“Sapphire!”

I recognize Gage’s voice. His hands join in. They both restrain me and drag me backward
off the street. People are scrambling in every direction, trying to get away. We get
pushed this way and that, almost swallowed by the crowd.

Red film covers my vision. I shake my head and blink hard. No. Not now.

The internal scan comes back to life before my eyes.

Severe blood loss. BP steadily dropping. Approaching critical level.

I force the scan off with another shake of my head. Can’t focus on that now.

A small feminine body bumps into my back. Sapphire’s gasp shocks me into action. Whirling
around, I hug her to me, right as Gage shoves us all in between two buildings. The
alley is small, tight, no more than four feet wide and six feet long.

“Are you alright?” I cup her face in my ravaged hands. Before I have a chance to look
her over or scan her, she burrows deep into my embrace and stands on her tip-toes.
Her little hands fist the back of my jacket.

We’re both breathing hard. She reaches up and cups my wrists. “Deimos, your hands.”

As if I give a fuck about that right now. “Sapphire, answer me.”

With a small huff, she shakes her head. “I’m unharmed. But Deimos, you’re not, you
didn’t have to—”

I stop that shit right there. “Yeah, I did. No one hurts you, you hear me?” She gasps
against my cheek, but I don’t stop. She needs to understand. “No one hurts you,” I
repeat, my tone a hoarse rasp.

A sound to my left makes me look up. Gage is watching with a frown. He doesn’t seem
pissed. He seems confused.

Damn, I don’t blame him. What’s wrong with me?

He catches me staring at him, but does nothing to hide what’s doing in his head. “We
have to find a place to hide until we can check in with the others.” Raising a hand,
he shows me his almost destroyed sat-phone.  “Damaged, but it works. Did your phone
survive?”

“Don’t know.” I turn sideways. “Sapphire, pull it out of my left pocket.”

She does, and it’s just as I’d expected; shredded.

Gage curses under his breath. With one hand, he starts dialing, trying to reach someone
else on our team. “Here.” For the first time, I realize he’s been holding Sapphire’s
messenger bag. He hands it to her. Sapphire, still in my arms, reaches for it with
one hand. “Check yours.” He holds it for her as she reaches into it.

Her iPhone actually survived.

“Fuck.” Gage lowers his hand after trying to contact everyone and failing. “No communication.
And you're going to bleed out in a few.”

Oh. Forgot about the whole bleeding thing. As soon as he reminds me, it all starts
hitting me at once.

Sapphire moves out of my arms right as the first wave of dizziness slaps me in the
face. I fall back into the wall. She grabs my wrists, staring down at my blood-coated
hands with a horrified expression.

My defenses crumble, and the red haze of the scan snaps back to life.

BP at 80/60 and lowering. Emergency medical action needs to be taken.

I FORCE THE ANNOYING THING off again by sheer force of will. I don’t need it telling
me shit I’m already aware of. First I have to get enough strength together to get
Sapphire to safety.

“Shit.” Gage steps closer. “That’s worse than I thought. We might have to take him
to a hospital. It’ll be a dangerous chance to take, but he might not make it if we
don’t.”

“No hospital,” I groan out, watching as currents of blood leak out of me. He knows
damned well that the public can’t find out about what’s inside us.

Gage scoffs. “You’ll die, you idiot.”

He might not be kidding about that. The internal body scan turns on automatically
when the sensors detect less than optimal vitals. By that I mean borderline critical.

The insides of my fingers are visible. Torn skin, prosthetic ligaments, titanium joints,
and wires. I’ve seen it before, of course. In concept drawings, black-and-white X-rays,
blurry CT scans—and bits and pieces as skin tore off during battle.

Never like this. Never this much.

I am no longer a normal human. It’s been a fact of my life for two years now. Maybe
it’s the blood loss fucking with my head. I don’t know, but seeing it leaves me frozen
inside. The kind of stillness that begets shock, even if I don’t admit it to myself
right away.

Sapphire’s hold on my wrists is gentle. Her eyes are on my face, and filled with—tears?
For me? She just sliced up half a dozen men without so much as a blink, yet the state
of my hands does that to her?

Warmth spears through the coldness spreading to my limbs. I’ve lost enough blood at
this point that it’s starting to form a puddle at my feet. Don’t give a fuck, either.
Even if I do end up bleeding out, as I stare into her eyes, all I can think is:
Worth it.

I want her back in my arms. Caged by my body. She’s studying me, and I’m damned sure
she can tell everything I’m thinking.

“Your hands first,” she tells me, softly caressing my wrists.

“Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it
now
.” Gage is scowling at my feet, where the blood is gathering. “And even if we save
you, now we’re leaving this nice pool of DNA evidence behind.”

“No. Hospital,” I say yet again. He has a point about the DNA thing, but… “They’ll
track us down there.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Should I start making funeral arrangements, then?”

Fucking smartass.

“I can help him.” Sapphire holds her hand out for her bag. Gage gives it to her and
she starts searching through it. “My father—my real father—gave me these nanobot injections
that work with our BCI’s.”

“Brain-computer interface nanobots?” Gage and I ask at the same time. Up ‘till now,
the nanobot technology wasn't advanced enough to sync with our BCI’s. The bots had
to be controlled by a separate computer.

Sapphire pauses in her rummaging and blinks up at us. “All three of us are part machine;
I was born inside a computer, technically speaking, and you’re surprised to learn
that my father perfected BCI-controlled nanobots?”

Fair point.

“Thank God you were able to save my bag,” she tells Gage, pulling out a small, gray
box out of it and opening the lid. There’s a small screen on the underside. She presses
a button on the side and the screen comes to life, bathing the interior of the box
in blue light. Three needles sit cushioned inside. “I have them inside me. That’s
how I healed after the crash.” She pulls out one needle.

I’d been wondering about that. But shit, perfected nanobots.

“So Dr. Allen gave them to you?”  Gage asks Sapphire. At her nod, his eyes flicker
toward me for a second. “And I’m assuming he is also giving this technology to Lei
Heaton.”

“No.” Sapphire hands the box to Gage. “He destroyed all his records on how to make
them. I’m the only person who has the info,” she taps the side of her head with one
finger, “in here.” She doesn’t even give us a second to process that before grabbing
one of my wrists again. “Now, the bots won’t be able to do much more than stop the
bleeding, Deimos. I need to go into your systems and program them to integrate with
your BCI. And I don’t have the time to do that here.”

I tense at the mention of her going back into my systems.

She turns my hand over and begins searching for a suitable vein on the back. I feel
a small prick as she slides the needle in and pushes down on the plunger. The cerulean
liquid inside goes rushing into my vein. Once the needle is empty, she pulls it out
with obvious skill.

She knows how to give an injection.

And slice people up into pieces, too.

"There you go." Sapphire lifts my hand up and shows me. The bleeding is already slowing
down. "I'll reprogram them to help with the tissue regeneration later."

Gage spins away from us and takes a look out into the street. Even from where I'm
standing, I see people rushing past.

"Blending in is most important. We'll find a small hotel. No large ones, impossible
to hide. I still have my fake documents and credit card on me. Once you two are settled
in," Gage pauses in the middle of raising his hood, eyes on Sapphire and me, "she
can do her thing and heal you. Then I'll go looking for the others."

His tone states what his words don't loud and clear: he doesn't like the idea of leaving
us alone. Not one bit.

He's supposed to be one of the closest things I have to a friend, but ask me if I
care. Go ahead, ask me.

Gage catches the way I'm staring at him. He glares right back, adjusting his hood
so that it hides his hair.

Yup. That's right. We're no longer two hardened professionals focused on the mission.
We've degraded into teenage morons locked in a competition. And man, I wish I could
turn it off. This is dangerous. Fucked-up. Sapphire's life is in peril. We should
be focused on what's important: bringing our A-game to this situation.

Good luck bringing it with a quarter of the blood in your body gone.
I sigh and break our little staring contest.

Sapphire grabs my hand. "Bleeding's stopped."

Thank fuck for that. My skin remains torn to the bone, but there's no more blood leaking
out.

She lets my hand go. Standing up on her tip-toes, she reaches up to pull my hood over
my head. The movement brings her face close. Way too fucking close.

Awareness blazes to life in the small space between our faces. Wide-eyes clash with
mine. Her breath leaves her on a surprised exhale.

My head feels light. Don't know if it's the blood loss or her.

Probably her.

"Cops are starting to close off the areas around the blast. Let's get out of here.
Now."

Sapphire jerks away from me at the sound of Gage's words.

Cockblocking bastard. Yeah, he has a point, but I'm not thinking about that right
now. She'd been so close and I just want her back.

Gage reaches into his pocket. A second later, a pair of leather gloves slap me in
the chest. I barely manage to catch them before they fall on the floor.

"Cover up those hands. They're a mess."

No shit, ass.

The nerves along the edges of my wounds are just starting to repair themselves. Bending
my fingers to hold the gloves sends mini-shocks of pain racing up into my forearm.
Sonofabitch, it's going to be real fun once the healing process truly gets going.

I'm used to physical pain, though, so I hide it.

But Sapphire somehow senses something is up. Her movements as gentle as before, she
takes the gloves from me and motions for me to straighten my hands.

Moving the gloves into position, she stops right before sliding them on. Her eyes
meet mine and the concern I see in them threatens to unman me. This is the same girl
that ruthlessly killed her attackers, but seeing
me
in pain gets to her.

And that gets to me, on every dangerous level possible.

Shit, this girl.

"No matter what I do, this is going to hurt," she informs me in a small voice.

"S'kay." I shrug. "Nothing worse than I've had before."

She doesn't seem to like that statement. I grind my teeth but remain silent as she
carefully slips the gloves on. As soon as they're in place, Gage all but herds us
into action.

"Let's go. Before they find and catch us in here."

AVOIDING THE AUTHORITIES hadn’t been easy. Getting through the crush of people trying
to escape the scene had been even more of a headache.

But the shittiest part of all?

About four blocks away from Tung Choi Street, the blood loss caught up to me. Honestly,
in retrospect, I should’ve known that the gaping holes in my fingers would lead to
this. I might be part machine, but I still need blood in my body to survive.

All of that is nothing more than fucking semantics to me right now. I’m pissed. Beyond
livid. Ready to punch another hole through someone’s face.
I’m a man, alright? One that prides himself on strength. A fucking warrior. I’ve dedicated
ten years of my life to becoming the best, fastest, strongest fighter possible.

And yet, at this moment, I’m being dragged through the small parking lot of a motel.
Sapphire and Gage are holding me up, my arms draped over their shoulders.

Translation: I’m so God damned weak right now that I’m being
carried
. An epic moment of emasculation and it’s happening in front of the girl I’m attracted
to.

Perfect.

“Dear God, dude. Maybe it’s all the hardware inside you, but you weigh a fucking ton,”
Gage complains.

“Shut the fuck up,” I grouse, jaw clenched. “I’ve seen your file. Somehow, you’re
three pounds heavier than I am, with just
one
bionic arm.”

“You’re talking too much for a guy that just lost most his blood,” he mumbles under
his breath.

Sapphire giggles next to me. The sound eradicates my annoyance instantly.

Hell, I’ll diss Gage and let him have at me all day if it means getting that reaction
out of her.

“Lean him up against here,” Gage says once we reach the darkest part of the parking
lot. They prop me up against the wall and he moves back. “I’m going to go rent us
a room. Think you can stay on your feet for long?”

My reply to that? I give him the finger.

Sapphire, still tucked into my side, giggles at the way Gage glares at me. She presses
into my shoulder, trying to muffle her laugh.

My arm tightens around her and brings her closer. What? It’s a reflex.

Okay. Fine. There’s no way I can deny that I did it on purpose.

Don’t care, either. I’m lightheaded, annoyed, worried for the rest of the crew, and
Sapphire’s safety. Her small body pressed to mine feels too damned good and right
now I can’t pass that up.

“I need your number so we can stay in contact,” Gage tells Sapphire.

It takes me a few seconds to assimilate that question, process it’s meaning, and when
it hits me, I tense so hard I almost fly off the wall.