Adam (Cyborgs: More Than Machines Book 6) by Eve Langlais

Author:Eve Langlais [Langlais, Eve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Dammit. He’d told her to hold on, and Laura had, until they hit the water and sank. Human self-preservation had kicked in at that point—for her at any rate. To him, water was just a medium like air or the void of space. In her case, though, she didn’t have the ability to survive long underwater, and in her attempt to save herself, she flailed away from him.

Given his hands were busy as he shucked his soggy wings, more weight than he could easily handle right now given the drag, he couldn’t spare a hand to clamp her to him.

As soon as he’d shed as much as he could, though, his first priority was to reclaim her, if he could find her.

Despite the protective film the nanos dropped over his eyes, he couldn’t see much. Given his orbs were still mostly organic, he couldn’t illuminate his field of vision. The murk blinded and he found his movements hampered by the current. He couldn’t spot Laura.

Logic insisted she’d probably sink rather than float, given she’d entered the river fully dressed. Without pausing to take a breath, he dove down, his nanos capable of filtering the oxygen from the water, not that he needed much. A handy cyborg trait meant their pores could absorb needed chemicals and gases. In this case, oxygen. There was no discomfort in holding his breath. No panic. He could stop breathing for weeks, even months.

Laura couldn’t, and she had to be getting short on air.

The very idea she might die drowning while in his care galvanized him. Adam swam, arms sweeping in wide arcs, seeking even just the most minute of touch or clue.

A tickle against his jaw. Not a fish or vegetation, but rather a string of bubbles, bubbles he hoped meant Laura. He sank, arms to his side, projecting himself much like an anchor, moving so fast he almost shot past her, only the wet tendrils of her hair brushing his face warning him of her presence.

Halting his momentum, he drew her to him as close as he could, so close that when she exhaled her final breath, he felt the air on his lips. Before she could inhale, he pressed his mouth to hers and blew.

At first she did not respond, and so he breathed for her. Blow in, giving her rich oxygen. Suck, ridding her of carbon dioxide. As he pumped air into her lungs, he kept one arm anchored about her waist while his free arm and legs moved in powerful flutter kicks and an arm stroke that propelled them upward.

Their heads broke the surface of the water, but Adam did not immediately remove his lips, even though he no longer breathed for her. Laura now took slow, shuddering inhalations. Her heart rate, while slow, still beat. He hugged her tight, needing the contact, wanting the reassurance that she lived.

The fear, the panic when he’d thought her lost, possibly dying, wasn’t something he cared to re-experience. It was bad enough his memory banks had stored the event in all its frightening glory for him to relive at will.

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