My Cyborg Savior (Crimson Romance) by Honoria Ravena Page B

have a little tidbit of knowledge withheld so their employers could keep tabs on them.
    They ducked into another alley and she hesitated. She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I always hate this spot. I’ve been attacked here before. It’s not the best of neighborhoods.”
    He smiled, but he was worried. There wasn’t a streetlight back here. The place was steeped in darkness. “I’ve got your back. No mugger can get by me.” He silently adjusted his eyes for night vision.
    She jumped. “Your eyes. They’re glowing now.”
    “Yep, sure are. Keep moving.”
    She shook her head, but kept walking. “Eventually, you’re going to have to tell me the extent of your super powers.”
    “I don’t have super powers.” He kept pace with her now instead of letting her walk ahead of him. Guarding her in this place was really a two person job. Thankfully, he wasn’t normal. He had enough censors that he could spot anything coming.
    “He waits for me right around this corner.”
    Galen nodded, and they stepped around it. A robed man stood perfectly still in the middle of the lane. Galen pulled his pistol from its holster. Something thumped to the ground in front of the robed figure. Galen’s gaze zeroed in on it and magnified enough to identify a grenade.
    “Fuck! Run.”
    There was flash, and an energy blast struck him in shoulder. Jamila screamed as he shoved her back around the corner. He grabbed her under the arm and hauled her down the street. There was a faint click. He cursed and threw himself on top of her. They hit the ground hard, her gasp loud in his ears.
    The explosion shook the ground. He covered his head as shrapnel rained from the sky and heat licked his skin. Jamila cried out, but he couldn’t do anything except try to keep her covered as everything was sent into chaos.
    They lay in silence for a second while he listened for movement. He sat up and checked on Jamila. Her lips were moving but he couldn’t hear a word she said. A loud ringing filled his ears. He wouldn’t be able to hear any threat coming at them. Fuck.
    He pulled her to her feet and she screamed. Even through the damage to his ears he heard it faintly. She gestured to her leg. There was a piece of metal in her thigh. Dammit. What now? He couldn’t pull it out here. Even if it hadn’t hit an artery, it would bleed a hell of a lot. He didn’t know where her ship was, so he couldn’t take her to it.
    They had to leave here. If he went the wrong way they could double back later, but they needed to move before the explosion attracted officers. Or the people who’d tried to kill her came after them again. He scanned the area but there was no sign of them. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there, or that they didn’t have another trap set. He ducked, grabbed her around the knees, and tossed her over his shoulder, doing his best to ignore the blinding pain the movement caused. He stumbled and went down to his knees. He took a deep breath and tried to shut down the pain receptors in his brain, but things were too scrambled at the moment. The grenade must have stunned some of his systems.
    He shoved himself to his feet and ran. Jamila’s hands dug into his hips with such ferocity it was almost painful. He needed to get her some place where he could see to her wound. She wasn’t bleeding much yet, but when he removed the spike, they’d see exactly what kind of problem they had.
    He hesitated at the mouth of the alley. If they were spotted by patrollers they’d likely be arrested. Jamila hit his back repeatedly and he stopped. She was trying to tell him something. She tapped his left side, and he went that way. Hopefully that was what she meant. He stuck close to the buildings. Thankfully they were heading away from the crowds of downtown. She thumped his back again and he stopped.
    When she tapped the right side of his body, he rushed across the street to the alley he spotted. He saw her ship at the end of it. He hacked the system