Page 42 of Kiss of Steel

A motion to her right caught her eye. A baby horniger toddled on six wobbly legs. At the sound of a snort, she jerked her head left. Eyes blood-red with malice, a female horniger pawed the ground. Her panicked brain did a belated analysis. Calf on the right. Female horniger left. Her in the middle.Oh god—

The mama charged. She screamed.

Jason whooshed between her and the beast.

The animal caught him on its antlers, impaling him through the torso, three sharp spikes coming out the other side. The animal shook him like a dog flinging a chew toy and then tossed him high into the air.

He sailed over the paddock fence and hit the ground with a thud. He lay motionless as the dust swirled around him.

“Jason!” she screamed. “Oh my god, Jason!”

She tried to run to him, but the other cyborg dragged her away as the female horniger pawed the ground. “Let me go! Let me go! I have to get to him.” Tears streamed down her face, and she fought against his iron hold.

A horn blared. Lobster man careened down the field in the wagon and drove the beast back.

The cyborg released her, and she ran toward her husband’s body.

Medics from the infirmary sprinted toward him with a stretcher.

He wasn’t moving, and there was blood everywhere.

Dear god, what did I do?

Chapter Eighteen

“He’s going to die.” Honoria paced the infirmary waiting area. Miraculously, Jason hadn’t died yet—but she didn’t see how he could survive triple impalement, plus falling from the sky. The doctor refused to let her see him!

“No, he’s not,” said Mike Fury.

“You don’t know that!” she fired at him. Dusty and Phibious, waiting with them, exchanged a dubious glance.

“Haven has advanced medical equipment, and Dr. Twygg is a highly educated and trained physician. Let’s not lose hope until all measures have been exhausted,” Phibious said. His qualified reassurance only proved he doubted Jason’s chance of survival, too.

She bit her knuckle.This is all my fault. He saved me from the horniger. He’s going to die, and it’s all my fault.

Eying the two Haven men, Fury said, “Steel has been in more serious scrapes than this and come out of it okay. He’s a tough SOB.”

This was more than a scrape! The fall alone could kill him, and he’d been impaled by three horns. How many organs had been pierced or torn? His heart? Lungs? Liver? Kidneys?

He can’t die. I love him.

Fears and doubts had evaporated when he’d been gored. Weren’t there two sides to every story? She hadn’t let him explain! If he’d intended to kill her, he would have done it by now.He’s not like Blane.He would never hurt me.He loves me.

Unfortunately, the shock of seeing Fury had thrown her into a panic, and she’d fled.

Whatever Jason had been or done before coming to Refuge, he was a different person now. She realized that’s what he’d been trying to tell her; this was the past he was afraid to share. And when she’d found out the truth, she’d run, just like he’d feared she would. She would never forgive herself.

Jason was aman. Her husband might have been genetically and electronically modified, but he was human in the ways that counted.

However, Refuge wouldn’t see it that way. They accepted damn near every race of alien, but not cyborgs. The ban had been stated on the sanctuary application form.That’s why he kept it a secret. His application would have been rejected.She still had questions whether Fury could be trusted, but if Jason vouched for him, then she would accept that.

What if the doctor discovered their secret?She froze mid step. Her gaze shot to Fury. He lounged in the chair, a picture of calm and sangfroid. “What are you worrying about now?” he asked.

She glanced at Phibious and Dusty, before looking at Fury.

“I am wondering if thehighly trained doctorwho hashigh-tech equipmentmight uncover other undetected, uh…”

“Health concerns?” he supplied.

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