Page 10 of Her Lawless Prince

Payton stopped pulling at her clothing and studied him. “Fear doesn’t serve me now.”

That didn’t mean the feeling wasn’t there but dwelling on it wouldn’t change the fact that she was far from home. What had her father always said?

“When battles seem to be at their lowest and most dire, focusing forward is the only way through.”

“Who are they? What do they want with us?” She didn’t think it was a coincidence that their kidnappers appeared moments after Nyle. “What do they want withyou?”

Nyle opened his eyes to look at her. “What makes you think they are after me?”

“Because I didn’t do anything.” Payton pushed up from the floor and took several deep breaths. Her thinking cleared by small degrees. “And if they wanted to kidnap and drug a member of the royal family, there are easier targets than—”

Payton stiffened.

“What?” he asked.

“Where’s Yevgen?” she asked. “I saw the light go out in his eyes. Did they take him too?”

Nyle pointed behind her.

Payton turned and moved toward the platform. Behind it, shoved in a corner, was Yevgen. His cyborg eyes didn’t glow with power. Blood stained the side of his shirt. She wasn’t sure how much blood a cyborg carried, but it looked like he’d lost a lot by the breadth of the dried crimson. How had she not smelled it earlier? Now the unmistakable scent filled her head, and she could smell nothing else.

Payton fell to her knees next to him and gave his body a light shake. She put her hand on his chest, trying to feel a heartbeat but finding cold flesh over his metal frame instead.

He was dead.

“Oh, no, Yev.” Tears filled her eyes. “No. No. No. Yevgen.”

She gave him another shake. The cyborg didn’t respond. The pain of grief rolled through her at the loss of a friend. She’d never worried about his mortality, always assuming he’d survive well past her hundreds of natural years.

“I’m sorry about your…uh, husband-mate,” Nyle said. He didn’t sound as if he meant it.

“Don’t you care at all? You created him,” Payton insisted.

“I have a creator’s fondness and a scientist’s curiosity, perhaps,” Nyle said.

“You’re his father.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” He shook his head. “It’s like a pilot has a fondness for his restored ship, or a chef for his favorite electric knives. They’re objects. Not people.”

“Knives don’t talk back.” Payton wasn’t sure why she wanted to argue with this man, only that she wanted to invoke compassion in him for her friend.

“They’re all tools built to aid in a function. Computers talk, but we don’t miss them when they’re gone. Yevgen’s function is to process and communicate information. He was built to help the Cysgodian people. From what I gathered from his little secret fort, he’s been doing that. Though, I will say, those legs are a surprise. It would appear something in his programming has encouraged self-improvements. If he hadn’t become so dangerous, I’d find it fascinating.”

She wanted him to stop talking about her friend like he was simply a computer. “Yevgen has… He’s… He was…”

“What? Alive?” Nyle chuckled.

“Yes.” Payton nodded.

“I suppose I could thank you for the compliment, but facial patterns and human mannerisms weren’t my departments.”

“He was alive. He felt things.” Payton took a deep breath, trying to pull her grief back into the realm of realism. “Or he tried to feel things. I can think of nothing more human than persevering in the face of failure. Who are you to say he wasn’t?”

When she glanced back at him, Nyle looked as if he felt sorry for her. “As I said before, he was built to help process and communicate information. His directive was to take care of the Cysgodians. That is what you witnessed.”

Payton felt irritation bubbling inside of her. She didn’t want his pity. “I think it’s time you told me exactly what is going on. And we’re not talking about anything else until I know the truth. Why are they doing this?”

“Yevgen somehow gained access to information he shouldn’t have. He also managed to hack into the Federation database. I’m not sure how he accomplished it, but clearly, his artificial intelligence grew beyond normal parameters. Though to be honest, our initial intellect projections didn’t go out thirty years.” Nyle appeared next to them. “It’s the same reason I came to find him and shut down his operation.”

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