Ghost Of A Machine will be releasing on May 16th (it is available for pre-order now!).
I’ve been sharing scenes from the first chapter.
You can read the first scene here: http://tasteofcyn.com/2017/04/17/ghost-of-a-machine-first-scene/
This is the fourth and final scene from Chapter One.
Ace, the K Model cyborg, repaired his finger and palm interfaces, reconnecting the circuits. Ghost’s nanocybotics, the part of him that was responsible for his faster-than-human healing, were stimulated by the activity. Energy surged through him.
That increased his frustration over his failures, escalated his pain. Some of that emotion flowed into rage, his anger directed at himself and at his Humanoid Alliance handlers. The Humanoid Alliance had given the orders for the killing, had participated in it.
Ghost rumbled, yearning to take action, to ease his conscience.
Ace accessed the warship’s systems through Ghost’s interface. The doors slid open.
Ghost lurched forward, looked to the right and to the left. There were no guards. No one to give him commands. No one to punish.
Kill every being you see, Ace instructed.
Kill. Yes, he would kill them all. Then the pain inside him would dissipate. Then he’d be fully repaired, his human and his machine halves at peace.
Ghost flung back his head, released a roar, and rushed forward, searching for his first target. One of his handlers entered the corridor. The male’s eyes widened. He turned and ran in the opposite direction.
He wasn’t fast enough. Ghost moved at cyborg speed, faster than any human. He grabbed the male. The handler squawked.
Not having any weapons, Ghost bent his head. Using his teeth and hands, he ripped off the male’s skull, killing him quickly. That didn’t dampen the images of the females. He tore off the male’s arms and legs. The females’ faces remained in his thoughts.
He shredded the torso, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. It splattered over his naked form and oozed between his toes. Ghost painted the walls crimson, took the male apart until there was nothing left to grip.
The rage inside him didn’t dissipate. It grew until all he saw was red, until the only word in his processors, in his organic brain, was kill.
Ghost stormed through the warship, tracking beings by their scent. He battered through doors and walls to get to his targets, ending their lives as he had ended his handler’s life, quickly, brutally.
They couldn’t escape him and they deserved their fate. All of the males had tortured him, had delighted in causing him pain. They would pay for that, would pay for not allowing him to protect the females.
In Ghost’s damaged mind, the females’ deaths, his failure, and the males’ torment were bundled, mixed together in a volcanic vortex of emotion. Solar cycles of frustration gushed out of him, a red, heated, flow of rage, of violence.
The human warriors shot at him. He leaned toward their guns, embracing the agony. It was what he deserved. Projectiles riddled his form, biting into his skin. His nanocybotics hummed, struggling to heal him.
He continued killing. Beings screamed and begged for mercy. Their pleas didn’t penetrate his processors, didn’t reach his brain. He had been given an order—to kill every being he saw. He wouldn’t fail Ace, one of his own, not as he had failed the females. He ended the males’ lives with no hesitation.
The shuddering of the warship stopped as the corridors and the chambers flooded with blood. It was more than Ace’s order fueling Ghost, more than vengeance. The Humanoid Alliance had manufactured him for this, had designed him for killing, and it satisfied his machine to serve its purpose.
He hunted down every being on board the vessel.
Kill. Kill. Kill. He concentrated on that command, tearing the males into pieces with his mouth and hands. Blood streamed down his chest, scented the air.
He ravaged the last male. The warship was eerily quiet. Only the voices in his head remained.
They were fellow cyborgs, his processors relayed. The warriors were positioned on other ships, on planets. Some were free. Some remained slaves of the Humanoid Alliance.
None of them gave him his next order. Ghost stared down at the gore. Ace, the K Model cyborg, was silent. He’d withdrawn from Ghost’s processors.
The images of the females lingered, haunting him. His brain forgot. His databases never did. Ghost tried to sever the connection to his machine side. Both parts of him, wanting to remain whole, resisted and he wasn’t strong enough to overwhelm that blockade.
All he could do was slow the transfer of information.
He crouched beside his last target. Needing to do something, anything, he moved body parts from one spot to another.
That action didn’t stop the images running through his mind.
The last footage he’d recorded played. It featured the death of three females belonging to him, to his brethren. One of those females had been newly manufactured, couldn’t stand, couldn’t talk. All the females were defenseless. They’d surrendered to the Humanoid Alliance, laid down their primitive weapons.
The Humanoid Alliance, having no honor, had ordered the cyborgs to kill them. His brethren, not knowing who the females were to them, to their kind, had followed those commands.
Ghost had silently watched, unable to stop the carnage, his soul hollowed out by guilt. He couldn’t communicate to his brethren what they’d done, couldn’t give them that remorse, that grief. It was his to bear alone, silently.
The image faded.
The loop restarted. It always did, the torture never ceasing. The face of the little female filled his thoughts, her chubby cheeks, her brown curly hair, her big brown eyes.
The pain was endless and unbearable, projectiles piercing his brain, his heart, his soul. Ghost squeezed a handful of guts. Blood dripped on the tiled floor. He needed more beings to kill, more outlets for the agony. That might make the hurting tolerable.
More beings would arrive. The Humanoid Alliance would retrieve their warship.
When the males entered the vessel, he would seek vengeance. Every being he killed would be one less being able to harm the females.
That might ease his guilt, stop the pain.
Allow him to remain whole.
There will be spoilers posted about this story (there always are) so I really recommend that you not look at reviews until you’ve read it.
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Fragile. Stubborn. His.
Ghost, a C Model cyborg, has disconnected his machine from his human side. Severely damaged, he knows two things—the curvy human female on his ship belongs to him and he must keep her safe. He’ll stop at nothing to protect her, claim her, make her his.
Primitive. Damaged. Hers.
Lethe has seen the savage side of beings. The courageous Rebel captain has never met a male like Ghost. Overpoweringly dominant, he appeals to her on a primal level, filling her mind with thoughts of sweet surrender, hard kisses, and body-heating encounters against the warship’s walls.
They are two broken beings, one determined to protect, the other intent on flying into danger. Can love heal them both before they face their common enemy?
Ghost Of A Machine is Book 9 in the Cyborg Sizzle series and is a STAND-ALONE story.
It is also a BBW Cyborg SciFi Romance.
Pre-order Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Machine-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B06XR6M6GG/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Machine-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B06XR6M6GG/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ghost-of-a-machine/id1218969448
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghost-of-a-machine-cynthia-sax/1126040142
